The Advantages of Keeping Physically Fit - Good For You, Good For Your Country
https://www.humantruth.info/keeping_fit.html
By Vexen Crabtree 2017
Keeping fit can "reduce your risk of developing long-term disease, increase your life expectancy, and improve your quality of life in later years"1. It reduces the risk of coronary heart disease in particular and "can also help to lower your blood pressure, improve your cholesterol level, control your weight and reduce your risk of diabetes. Physical activity is also a good way of relieving stress"2. Keeping fit makes pregnancy easier, and complications less likely3. Exercise also aids mental health1,4,5. Research is showing that physical exercise allows the brain to retain its effectiveness longer into old age4,6 and even when starting after a life of sloth, exercise can help rescue the brain from mental decline, stimulating the growth of new neurones7. A healthy lifestyle, including physical fitness and eating sensibly, "can significantly reduce a person's risk of developing dementia"8.
Lack of physical fitness is not just to the individual's detriment, but has a negative impact on national economic efficiency and causes increases in national health costs. A lot of very expensive long-term therapies can be avoided simply by keeping fit in life. Exercise can be done for free in the home, with no equipment at all. Also with access to the Internet, it is easy to find many session videos to provide instruction. Finally, the Family Doctor Home Advisor gives some guidance: "Start by setting realistic goals. If you are not fit, begin exercising slowly and build up gradually"1.9
“Aerobic exercise can improve cognitive function, perhaps because of the increased oxygen to the brain or a rise in glucose metabolism. [...] A person who exercises consistently over a period of years will not show the same mental decline as someone who doesn't exercise. In tests of rapid decision making (such as how quickly a person could slam on the brakes if a child jumped in front of his or her car), researchers found that older men who had exercised were better at quick decision making than older men who hadn't. It is known that those who exercise for a long period have healthier hearts, lungs and muscles; now scientists suspect that exercise might also slow the decline in central nervous-system processing as well. Even walking around the block has been shown to be beneficial.
There's now solid evidence than regular aerobic exercise (such as running, biking, or swimming) can ease some more moderate cases of depression by raising the level of certain brain chemicals responsible for mood - some of the same brain chemicals that are affected by antidepressants. Even a brisk midday walk for 10 to 20 minutes can help. To be most effective, a person should exercise regularly at least three times a week (five or more is better) for at least a half-hour each time.”
"The Brain Encyclopedia" by Carol Turkington (1996)9
“If you are reasonably fit you will cope more easily with the experience [of pregnancy]. [...] All these changes put extra stress on your system. [...] If you are in good shape, however, you are likely to take it all in your stride, and you will find that your life will go on much as usual. [...] Healthy muscles, good circulation (which results from doing physical exercise) and posture all reduce the discomforts of being pregnant.”
"Healthy Pregnancy" by Gill Thorn (2003)3
The Modern Obesity Epidemic
#genetics #health #obesity #physical_fitness #public_health #UK
About one third of the global population is overweight or obese10. It's more serious than simple being overweight and causes a range of systemic health conditions including the development of Type 2 diabetes11,12, muscle and bone degradation including osteoarthritis11, cardiovascular disease (i.e. heart disease)11, substantial disability11, cancers (endometrial, breast and colon)11, the acceleration of the ageing process13 and decreased life expectancy11,13. Health systems have to routinely cope with resultant complications, and cultural changes are having to be made14, impacting on transport, resources and workplaces, with measurable effects on national economies, diverting time and resources away from other issues. In 2000, it was the world's most costly epidemic14, and has continued to get worse in every region of the world every decade since15.
The causes are lifestyle and culture16,11, not genetics17,18. Causes are processed foods, low levels of physical exercise, over-indulgence, poor choices in food products and poor knowledge of nutrition. Health experts have warned that there is no medical solution: prevention is the only possible route to reduce the cost of obesity19 but the situation is made much worse by well-funded advertising campaigns by food manufacturers selling cheap mass-produced food. Even many so-called "health foods" contain well over recommended limits of fat, salt and sugar20 and a range of popular fad diets capitalize on miseducated consumers to buy into costly and nonsensical schemes that falsely promise quick results21.
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