I just recovered from the flu and a bad sinus infection. That was not fun and I had to pump a lot of meds in my body to help me recover. It strikes me that the last time I had the flu was 10 years ago. That was the year that I didn’t get the flu shot. I faithfully get the flu shot every year since. Who knows why some years we catch the flu and others we are able to fight it off. When I think about what was different this year I come up with two items. First of all, I had flown on airplanes the last four weekends in a row before catching the flu. That definitely exposed me to a lot of germs in airtight quarters. I don’t think that did it alone, though. The other big glaring difference is that this is the first flu season in a long time that I didn’t work out regularly. Due to tennis elbow and a minor case of carpal tunnel syndrome in my left arm, I took a break from the gym to give my arm some time to heal the tennis elbow and to have medical testing done on my arm to see the how severe the carpal tunnel syndrome is to determine a treatment plan. So for the last five weeks, I have been way more sedentary than usual. I believe those two factors lowered my immune system so when I was exposed to the flu, I caught it. That is one of the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle…your immune system is not as strong as an active person’s system.
So when I received a guest post invitation to share the inforgraphic below about the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, I agreed to partner with Premier Vein of Alaska to share this with my readers. I start physical therapy for my arm today and I will return to my beloved gym soonafter. My trainer had told me that I could still come in and work out and that we would work around my arm. I should have listened! Maybe I could have avoided the flu. Maybe not. The one thing I know for sure is that a sendentary lifestyle is not healthy and is downright dangerous. Take a look at this and be reminded to keep moving, my friends!
Courtesy of Premier Vein of Alaska
