Cut your sick days with meditation and exercise

Monday, August 13, 2012 by: PF Louis
Tags: sick days, meditation, exercise

(NaturalNews) Reuters recently published an article about meditation and exercise reducing the days of sick leave employees may be forced to take.

Dr. Bruce Barrett of the University of Wisconsin-Madison led research to confirm what earlier studies have suggested: That people who exercise moderately often and those who have less stress are not as prone to getting respiratory illnesses such as colds and flues.

The study's focus was meant to discover how employees could stay in their work stations more without taking as much time off for temporary sick leave during cold and flu seasons. Fortunately, flu shots were not considered.

Though colds and flus are minor, and days of sick leave may not amount to much among a handful of people in one small company, Dr. Barrett is convinced that it amounts to billions of dollars of cost to society with both treatments and lost production.

He pointed out that there is no medicine or supplement that prevents or cures colds, and vaccines may prevent flus in half of a healthy group. Guess the good doctor knows very little about vitamin C or D3 or numerous herbal supplements. It also seems like he would rather not flirt with the flu vaccine's adverse reaction toll.

Nevertheless, study they did. Some consider the study too short and the subjects too few, while others consider it a confirmation of what's been suggested from other studies.

Dr. Barrett's study details

The study randomly assigned 149 people to three different groups: One group would meditate regularly, another group would exercise moderately most of the week, and the third group did neither.

Earlier studies demonstrated that those who meditated regularly reduced their stress levels and allowed their immune systems to strengthen somehow. The exercise routines used were aerobic and included cycling, jogging, and/or brisk walking in moderation.

Other studies have determined that intense athletic exercise can lower your immune system for up to 72 hours. So moderation is a key for good health. Wiping yourself out may be necessary for competitive sports, but not overall health.

The meditation and exercise groups met weekly for two-and-a-half hours of instruction and were encouraged to apply what they had learned with 45 minutes of meditation or exercise activity for five days.

This went on for eight weeks, just in time for Wisconsin's dreary fall and winter weather, considered their peak cold and flu season.

During that cold and flu season after the eight weeks, all three groups' work attendance records were monitored as well as their reported ailments and recovery times whenever work was missed. Apparently, the test study didn't take into account the occasional sick fib call-in.

In the group that neither exercised nor meditated, there were 40 bouts of mild respiratory illness. The meditation group showed 27 bouts of colds or flus while the exercise group had 26 bouts. The inactive, non-meditation group generally felt sick for nine days, while both the meditation and exercise groups felt sick for five days.

Even more importantly for corporate America, the inactive group missed 67 days due to respiratory infections, while the exercise group missed 32 days and the meditation group missed only 16 days.

The reason for the meditation group's lowest days missed was attributed to the fact that they experienced the least amount of misery during their bouts of respiratory infections.

Many NaturalNews readers know that vitamins D3 and C are important tools for preventative care. But this study offered a couple more tools. Maybe what's left of corporate America's domestic work force should be taught meditation and/or encouraged to exercise moderately while consuming vitamins D3 and C.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.reuters.com

http://www.tm.org/research-on-meditation/

http://www.cdc.gov/Features/Meditation/

http://www.spiritualcompetency.com/meditat/lesson5.html

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/injuryprevention/a/Ex_Immunity.htm