Exercise is beneficial for cold sufferers. Most doctors and medical researchers don’t know it but two little know studies published a decade ago in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Results from the studies were so much in favor of exercise that the researchers themselves were surprised.

The researchers reported that having a cold had no effect on either lung function or exercise capacity.  the subjects were tested at different points in the exercise sessions, from moderate to intense effort, and found that their colds had no effect on their metabolic responses.

The exercise didn’t affect recovery from the colds, either. The investigators found no difference in symptoms between the group that exercised and the one that rested. And there was no difference in the time it took to recover from the colds. But when the exercisers assessed their symptoms, lead researcher Dr. Kaminsky said, “people said they felt O.K. and, in some cases, they actually felt better.”

Read more at the New York Times.

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