How Exercise Helps Boost Recovery

Working out can help you bounce back from illness.

Regular exercise has been shown to help prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease, bone loss, and various other ailments and conditions. Still, it can’t protect against everything.

And when problems do arise, the road to recovery can be long and hard.

New research, however, indicates that moderate physical activity in the wake of some health crises may enhance the healing process and help get you back on your feet—sometimes literally.

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In a recent review of 24 studies involving 1,147 stroke victims, researchers analyzed how exercise programs affected rates of death, dependence, and disability. Fitness training included cardio (such as cycling), strength training (with free weights and resistance bands), or a combination of the two.

The team found that moderate cardiorespiratory training after a stroke helped improve patients’ walking ability, which fostered mobility and independence. Subjects who walked three or more days a week for at least 20 minutes at a time increased their speed and were able to do more on their own than study participants who didn’t exercise.

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Other research, published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, suggests that exercise may improve survival rates among people with chronic kidney disease. Patients who got the recommended amount of weekly physical activity after their diagnosis were up to 56% less likely to die during seven years of follow-up than those who did not exercise at all. And patients who exercised less than the recommended amount but were still active were 42% less likely to die during follow-up than the non-exercisers.

Fitness may also have an effect on prostate cancer. A study in the Journal of Urology by researchers at Duke Prostate Center found that among men undergoing prostate biopsy, those who got the equivalent of three or more hours of brisk walking every week had a 66% lower risk of the disease than their inactive peers. Furthermore, among men who had malignant biopsy results, those who walked at least an hour a week were less likely to have an aggressive or fast-growing form of the cancer.

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Researchers say that in addition to strengthening the immune system, exercise may lower levels of hormones that help feed the growth of prostate cancer.

Ideally, of course, you’ll never have to face anything as serious as a stroke or cancer. But in the event that you do, it’s nice to know that something as simple as taking a walk can help facilitate your recovery.