By Norman D. Ford, Health Reporter
Daily exercise--or just plain physical activity--is the most powerful health- promoting therapy in existance. It's more effective than any diet, it's an essential component of good health, and it's next to impossible to lead a long, healthy life without it.
Most of us have heard that exercise, such as brisk walking, is a slow way to burn body fat. Correct! What most of us haven't heard is that exercise works on the Whole Person level, swiftly bringing a host of powerful health benefits to both body and mind.
Within minutes of starting to exercise aerobically (walking, swimming, bicycling etc) the rhythmic contraction and relaxation of muscles in our arms, legs and trunk speeds up our entire metabolism and oxygenates every cell in both body and brain.
The lymph system speeds up detoxification while the digestive system accelerates elimination, helps prevent colo-rectal cancer, and makes constipation a rarity. Meanwhile, muscle movements massage and stimulate all of our internal organs. And as exercise pumps more oxygen into the brain, it boosts mental clarity and starts a dramatic chain of events that lead to huge improvements in our mood and well-being.
How Exercise Triggers the Feel-Good Effect
Within minutes of starting to exercise aerobically, the brain releases clouds of molecules called endorphins that block pain receptors in cells throughout the brain.
After 30 minutes of brisk walking, for example, any downer feelings of pessimism, pain, depression and hopelessness are likely to be replaced by a feel- good mood of optimism, confidence and hope. Runners call it a "Runners' High!" But you don't have to run to experience its exuberance. A brisk 30-minute walk or swim, or any similar aerobic activity, should leave you feeling great for the rest of the day.
This exuberant mood unlocks psychological benefits on every level of the human mind.
Most exercisers soon become addicted to daily exercise for its mood-elevating effect. And they continue to exercise daily because it makes them feel terrific all day long without depending on any drug or a stimulant like alcohol. Once you depend on exercise to feel good all day every day, you will not easily give it up.
Optimism, resulting from exercise, swiftly supplies the motivation and determination you need to stay with a healthy diet and lose weight. For instance, you can lose weight on almost any of the weight-loss diets. Yet most people lack the motivation and determination it takes to stay with a diet. It's almost standard procedure for most dieters to give up on their diets after a few weeks or months, and within a year they regain almost all the weight they have lost.
THAT'S BECAUSE ALMOST ALL DIETS HAVE A BUILT-IN FAILURE FACTOR--ONE THAT IS ALMOST GUARANTEED TO MAKE YOU FAIL.
Only when a diet is combined with a regular daily exercise program are dieters usually able to stay with their diet and gradually reduce their weight to normal. Then, for as long as they maintain their daily exercise program, they remain empowered with all the optimism, confidence, and determination they need to stay with their diet and to keep their weight permanently at a healthy level.
In contrast, those who stop exercising soon lose all the motivation and determination they need to stay with their diet. They go back to their old, unhealthful ways of eating. And back come the jiggling bellies and thunder thighs.
How Exercise Prevents Becoming Overweight and Diabetic
One of the many benefits of exercise is that the body produces ample supplies of the hormone Insulin. Insulin escorts blood sugar (from food we digest) to every muscle and tissue cell in the body. Insulin then unlocks receptors in each of these cells so that blood sugar can enter and be stored as muscle fuel.
But without daily exercise, sedentary and inactive people develop a condition called "Insulin Resistance." Muscle and tissue cells reject Insulin. This forces Insulin to escort blood sugar into adipose (fat) cells instead, where it turns into excess body fat and bulges out in all the wrong places.
Insulin Resistance, which is common in overweight people who don't exercise, is just the first stage in a melancholy series of steps leading to pre-Diabetes then to Metabolic Syndrome and finally to full-blown Type-2 Diabetes--now attaining epidemic levels in Americans of all ages who spurn exercise. In turn, Diabetes leads to a host of frightful complications from heart attack to stroke, kidney failure, hypertension, blindness, foot amputation, and several types of Cancer. (See our report "Lose Weight Faster and Beat Diabetes" on Home Page Menu.)
Yet all it takes to prevent --or even reverse--most cases of Type-2 Diabetes is just two hours of brisk walking each week. But don't take our word for it!
In 2003, the renowned Mayo Clinic released a study confirming that frequent and regular exercise boosts the body's sensitivity to the sugar-regulating hormone Insulin--which is the same key factor we've been discussing for fighting overweight and Diabetes.
And on Page 7 of its January 2004 On-Health Newsletter, Consumer Reports described a large clinical trial of participants with pre-Diabetes Metabolic Syndrome. After 5 months of regular exercise, one-third of the study participants were free of Metabolic Syndrome.
In fact, regular daily exercise in combination with a healthy diet, is the ONLY non-drug way to prevent and control becoming overweight or obese, or sliding on downhill into pre-Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome or full-blown Type-2 Diabetes.
And though you may not have realized it yet, regular daily exercise in combination with a healthy diet, is the basis of the Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan, which this website is all about.
Where To Find The Basics Of A Healthy Diet
The basics of a healthy diet are outlined in the following reports listed on our Home Page Menu.
Numerous studies have clearly demonstrated that a daily program of exercise and diet, similar to that endorsed in our Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan, can prevent or delay onset of a long list of age-related diseases and conditions. In some cases, it can also halt or reverse a disease that already exists.
To cover the effect of exercise on each of these conditions in the detail we have just done for the Overweight-Obesity-Diabetes Syndrome would fill this entire website. So instead, here is a briefer listing of some of the diseases and conditions that may be prevented or improved through a program of regular daily exercise (in combination with a healthy diet).
Exercise Helps Defuse The Stress of Modern Life
Regular aerobic exercise helps defuse high levels of emotional stress-- particularly anger and hostility--that cause a surge in adrenalin and cortisol, stress- hormones that trigger the body's Fight or Flight Response. This hormonal spike creates physical changes that send blood pressure soaring and it can start a heart attack or stroke.
Regular daily aerobic exercise calms our mental turmoil and projects a brighter, more optimistic future, making it easier to handle life's problems without stress. Studies have proved that people who exercise aerobically nearly every day have lower levels of the adrenalin-cortisol stress hormones and smaller increases in blood pressure and pulse rate under duress.
Fitter People Are Happier and Healthier and Live Longer
By releasing endorphins and modifying stress hormones, regular daily aerobic exercise boosts the mind's joy factor, transforming our mood into one of optimism, happiness, hope, confidence and motivation to succeed.
Scores of studies have correlated a positive mood--like the Runner's High caused by exercise--with healthy outcomes, faster healing, swifter recovery from surgery and a more powerful immune system to fight off infections.
By contrast, people who don't exercise tend to feel depressed and to become sick more often while statistics show they also have a higher incidence of mental and physical problems (such as blood clots).
For example, in a landmark study released in 2001, Mayo Clinic researchers analyzed the records of 839 patients who were given psychological tests 30 years earlier. Statistics showed that those who, 30 years ealier, scored highest on pessimism were 20 percent more likely to die prematurely than were those with the highest scores for optimism. And twice as many pessimists contracted Alzheimer's.
In another 7-year Mayo Clinic study which also ended in 2001, older adults who were optimistic about the future had a death rate 11 percent lower than those who held out little hope for the future.
Assuming that optimism is a by-product of exercise, these studies clearly demonstrate that exercise helps us to enjoy longer, healthier, happier lives. And adopting the Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan helps fight aging on every level of the body-mind.
Beating Hypertension With Exercise And Diet
How high is your blood pressure? Nowadays, a reading of 120/80 or below is considered normal, while 120/80 to 140/90 is pre-hypertensive, and 140/90 or higher signifies High Blood Pressure (aka Hypertension). The first figure is the systolic reading, the second the diastolic reading. If only one figure is above normal, base your risk on the higher reading.
High Blood Pressure, or even pre-Hypertension, raises risk of stroke up to 37 percent or more, and heart attack by 25 percent, with added risk of cognitive heart failure, kidney disease and dementia.
Most older Americans who don't exercise suffer from increasing arterial stiffness as they age, which makes Hypertension more difficult to treat. Yet in many cases it can be normalized by a combination of regular daily aerobic exercise and a healthy diet low in BAD fats but moderately-high in GOOD fats. (See report :A Primer on Fats" on Home Page menu.) Adopting our Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan gives you both the exercise and the anti-hypertensive diet you need.
Hypertension can be reversed by an exercise-diet combination because for every two pounds of weight a person loses, the systolic blood pressure drops one point. Exercising aerobically for at least 30 minutes each day is a key step in controlling Hypertension and it often lowers blood pressure readings, even without much weight loss. Too, a weight loss of only ten pounds is often all it takes to cause a significent drop in blood pressure levels.
Since most Americans have weak motivation because they don't exercise, physicians tend to focus on drugs to treat Hypertension rather than lifestyle modification. But the drugs have adverse side effects and they often don't work, while the all natural exercise/diet treatment offers a host of other health benefits.
A few tips: having your blood pressure taken in a doctor's office is often a sloppy, rushed procedure that makes the patient nervous and causes higher readings. For under $30, most chain drug stores sell a reasonably accurate, manual, home blood pressure testing kit which you can soon learn to use. Although you need good hearing, these manually operated kits often give more accurate readings than finger-cuff or eletronically-operated devices. For best results, sit quietly at a table while relaxing and take slow, deep breaths for 5 minutes prior to taking your blood pressure.
A Huge Jump In Self Esteem
Last but not least is the huge jump in self-esteem that exercise seems to engender. That's because exercising--and particularly sculpting the kind of body you want with strength-building exercise--rewards most men and women with a more slender, sinewy and athletic figure plus a HUGE jump in energy, stamina and endurance. Most exercisers look younger and feel better than they have in years.
And lest we forget, daily exercise also helps to prevent and beat Dementia and Depression, and it boosts HDL (good) cholesterol while helping to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol. It prevents heart disease and stroke, improves osteo-arthritis, helps you sleep better, heightens sexuality and sexual performance, and it helps to prevent osteoporosis and risk of a disabling hip fracture.
Best of all, researchers at Tufts University have proved that these benefits can occur at any age. Everyone experiences a slow, gradual decrease in muscle fiber size with age. But most fiber loss in Americans is due to inactivity and sedentary living. By working out on strength-building machines, older men and women-- including some in their 80s and early 90s--have significantly increased their strength and aerobic fitness. While a lifetime of regular exercise is ideal, even starting to exercise late in life can increase an older person's quality of life and life expectancy.
How Exercise Can Turn Back the Aging Clock a Full 20 Years
For proof, a team of Texas physicians analyzed a score of studies assessing the benefits of exercise by elderly people.
One study of men and women in their 70s found that six months after starting a regular exercise program, the participants regained over 20 percent of the aerobic capacity they had lost over the years. On average, they restored their aerobic fitness to where it had been at age 50, literally turning back the clock a full twenty years!
Another 1994 study demonstrated that even frail, elderly people can improve muscle strength. In this study, a group of men and women aged 75 or over increased their muscle strength by more than 20 percent after just 3 months of regular strength-building exercise.
How To Make Time For Exercise
Despite the overwhelming benefits available, most Americans claim they don't have time for exercise workouts. Four Americans in five say their time is so crunched that exercise is among the first thing to go. Children, laundry, shopping, repairs, long working hours--maybe 48 a week instead of 40--and a brutal daily commute that often takes 30-to-45 minutes each way, all eat up so much of the day that exercise is relegated to an "if I have time" item.
In a recent issue, Prevention Magazine faced up to just these same problems.
"Do a Makeover on your Day." the magazine advised its predominently working women readers. "Trade TV time for exercise," it suggested. "Don't drive to a gym, work out at home. Move, if necessary, to be close to a safe area for exercising outdoors. Avoid becoming a taxi driver for your kids. Don't drive them to and from school if they can go by bus or safely walk. Don't work in the evening. Eat a healthy brown bag snack during the lunch break, instead of lunching at a restaurant, and exercise instead. Walk at least part way to and from work. Climb stairs instead of taking the elevator. Avoid volunteer work. And above all, take time off for yourself!"
Sound advice! For more hints, click on the report, "Why Most Americans are Vacation Starved," on our Home Page menu and learn how living a life of Voluntary Simplicity can increase your amount of free time.
And by the way, you don't need to join a gym. All it takes to get started is a pair of top-of-the-line jogging shoes, usually $25 at a discount store. Then borrow a book from your library on calisthenics and exercises you can do at home, using furniture as equipment.
If you do join a gym, elliptical machines provide the most effective aerobic workout. Or just try walking uphill while swinging your arms. For around the cost of 5 months membership at a gym, you can buy an inexpensive home exercise machine or, better, a set of free weights with barbells, stand and bench.
Aerobic or Strength-Building Exercise?
While many of the benefits in this report focused on aerobic exercise, strength- building exercises are just as important. You do need to exercise aerobically for at least 30 minutes to experience the feel-good effects of endorphin release. So if you have an hour a day for exercise, I recommend spending 40 minutes on an aerobic workout such as brisk walking, and 20 minutes on a strength-building program.
Exercising at a vigorous pace, such as jogging, is more effective and builds stronger bones than walking. Yet walking briskly provides 80 percent of the benefits of jogging, and with less likelihood of injury.
And try to work a few yoga-type stretches into your program after you've warmed up. Performing the classic postures of Hatha Yoga provides a multitude of health benefits, while giving you the flexibility of a much younger person. Tai-Chi, a Chinese system of slow, controlled movements and meditation, also fortifies your sense of balance and has saved many older people from having a fall. Singles tennis, bicycling, Pilates and even belly dancing are other beneficial forms of exercise.
Help Get America Out Of The Car And Back On Its Feet
Actually, our entire American way of life is so over-mechanized that it does everything possible to deny us the opportunity to exercise. All too often, we must fight for a chance to exert our muscles instead of using a noisy, polluting, power-driven machine. Cars, golf carts, riding mowers, ATVs, chain saws, garden tillers, power boats and drive-ins all rob us of the exercise that would have been our birthright a few decades ago. Thus it's not surprising that Americans have become the most overweight, flabby and out-of-shape people on earth.
Because exercise is more effective than many drugs, it should become a major medical tool. But instead, doctors prefer to prescribe expensive drugs--with adverse side effects--to treat disease states that could be reversed by exercise and a healthy diet. . in other words, by our Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan.
So it's up to each of us to provide our own exercise program. . . And in the process to " Help Get America Out Of The Car And Back On Its Feet.".
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CAUTION: Though these reports are based on documented studies in professional journals or on advisories from leading university medical schools and research institutes, they are intended for information only and should not be regarded as medical advice or instruction. For diagnosis and treatment of specific symptoms and diseases, disorders or dysfunctions, consult your physician. If you smoke or are over 35 or have symptoms of--or are at risk for--any chronic or degenerative disease, you should check with your doctor before beginning to exercise or making any changes in lifestyle or diet. However, fitness organizations like the American College of Sports Medicine invariably believe that the risk of NOT exercising far exceeds any risk in beginning a gradually increasing program of daily exercise. Thus if you experience any pain or problem while exercising, or making any other lifestyle change, stop and see your doctor at once.