Exercise contributes to all that is beneficial for your bodily and mental health. It has the power to keep these in top working condition. Exercise helps to keep your weight in control and ward off all life-threatening diseases like cardiovascular diseases, lungs disease and even cancer. In certain conditions, exercise is known to be the single-most important factor in the prevention and treatment of many diseases and surpasses innumerable medications in its efficacy.
Here are some specific areas in which exercise benefits your health:
-Exercise lowers blood pressure and improves cholesterol levels. It raises HDL or good cholesterol and lowers LDL or bad cholesterol. It also reduces the formation of fatty substances in the blood known as triglycerides.
-Exercise helps to reduce inflammation and stickiness of the platelets in the arteries. This helps to prevent clots and blockage in the arteries which are known to cause heart diseases.
-Exercise raises the level of our “feel good” hormones named endorphins. It helps to lower stress anxiety and depression. It also lowers the level of high blood pressure.
-Exercise is also known to benefit the mind and delay the onslaught of age-related conditions like memory loss and reasoning ability associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It aids in improving one’s thinking process and cognitive functions.
-Exercise increases your potential for preventing, fighting and curing many life-threatening diseases. Exercise performed regularly for at least 30 minutes a day, increases longevity in an individual.
-Exercise performed regularly is most effective for patients having peripheral artery disease, blockages found in the arteries of the legs. Studies indicate that there were great improvements when these patients walked briskly for at least 30 minutes 4-5 times a week.
-Exercise helps to keep one’s weight in control; it can help to keep you physically and mentally fit and improve the quality of your life.
-Exercise helps to combat the adverse effect of obesity and type 2 diabetes leading to heart attacks. Today, this is most common condition in United States; it is due to the imbalance in the levels of insulin or lack of the cells ability to respond normally to the insulin produced. With exercise and weight loss, the cells can be activated again to function normally again.
-Exercise counteracts the effects of aging. Regular activity of any kind helps to slow down the aging process. After age 70, the fitness level of a person drastically declines. As a result, the elderly become more prone to several age-related complications in health.
-Conclusion
The benefits of exercise far outweigh the risks of injury involved. As you advance in years, maintaining good health can have a powerful impact on the quality of your life. It is never too late to start exercising. If you have not been exercising, begin today to live a long and healthy life.
Source: Longevity made Simple— How to add 20 good years to your life by Richard Flanigan, MD and Kate Flanigan Sawyer, MD, MPH