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A 30-minute walk every day can do more for your long-term health than all the efforts of a dozen doctors and medication.
Not only does exercise improve your health, even if you have already been diagnosed with something, but it can go a long way to prevent the onset of several life-threatening conditions, like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
And exercise can make you look great, younger, fitter and thinner. Who needs any more convincing?
We have scrutinised the medical journals. Here’s a summary of the proven health benefits of exercise:
1. Has anti-ageing effects
Exercise enhances blood flow to the brain, possibly reducing risk of stroke. It also improves reasoning and memory. Regular exercise arouses the brain and slows down degeneration of the central nervous system, which leads to slower reaction times and poorer coordination. Exercise also increases strength and size of muscles and improves lung function. Regular exercise can reduce body fat and lower the risk of chronic lifestyle diseases in the elderly. Recent literature suggests that the greatest threat to health is not the ageing process itself, but rather inactivity.
2. Promotes brain health
If you thought exercising your brain meant only doing a few crossword puzzles or learning a language, you may be wrong, rather put on your walking shoes and get moving. This was the finding of researchers from the University of Illinois. Their study found that the brain responses in active seniors were comparable to those of young adults. It’s thought that exercise increases the flow of blood to the brain, just as it improves circulation to the heart and the rest of the body. Activity also stimulates the growth of nerve cells in the part of the brain involved in memory.
3. Is great for your sex life
The medical research points towards it: the fitter you are, the better your sex life is. The reason seems to be two-fold: psychologically you feel better about yourself and more inclined towards sex, and physically, being fit improves libido, blood circulation and sexual functioning.
4. Improves sleeping patterns
Relaxation exercises will help ease tension and relieve headaches, backaches and insomnia. Exercise releases the body’s own painkillers, called endorphins, into your system. It also helps you gain a sense of emotional well-being and a feeling of being more in control. Exercise during the day promotes the onset and quality of sleep, according to the South African Memory Resource Centre. But you need to exercise at the right time: the ideal time for exercise is in the morning. Exercising late in the day can contribute to sleeplessness, because exercise causes an increase in your body’s energy.
5. Combats impotence
If you stop and think about it, it makes sense; increased circulation as a result of exercise should result in lower levels of impotence, as getting an erection is dependent on the efficiency of blood circulating to the penis. “Losing weight, stopping smoking and doing more exercise are associated with better sexual health,” says Dr Andrew McCullough, director of Male Sexual Health, Fertility and Microsurgery at New York University Medical Center in New York City.
6. Helps prevent stroke
Need another reason to make good on that long overdue promise to get more exercise? It can dramatically cut your risk of stroke. Highly active people have a lower risk of having a stroke or dying if they had one, compared with sedentary folks.
7. Is good for mind and soul
- May act as a temporary diversion to daily stresses.
- Provides an opportunity for social interaction that may otherwise be lacking in an individual’s life.
- Exercise provides an opportunity for self-mastery. Increasing fitness or improving body composition and other health parameters may improve an individual’s self-esteem.
- Increased core temperature during exercise may lead to reduced muscle tension or alterations to brain neurotransmitters.
- Mood improvements may occur due to the increased secretion of endogenous (internal) opiates e.g. endorphins.
- Psychological changes may occur due to alterations in norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin, all hormones which can affect mood and anxiety level.
8. Improves oxygen and nutrient supply to all cells
Exercise improves how your body uses oxygen, and lowers systolic blood pressure (high pressure is a dangerous condition common in elderly people).
9. Improves muscle strength, joint structure and joint function
Strengthening exercises increase muscle strength and mass, as well as bone strength, and the body’s metabolism. A certain level of muscle strength is needed to function every day and do things like walking and climbing stairs. Strengthening exercises increase this muscle strength by putting more strain on a muscle than it’s normally accustomed to receiving. This increased load stimulates the growth of proteins inside each muscle cell that allow the muscle as a whole to contract. Cartilage doesn’t have a blood supply; it relies on synovial fluid moving in and out of the joint to nourish it and take away waste products. Exercise helps this process.
10. Helps manage arthritis
Regular, intensive exercise for people with rheumatoid arthritis builds muscle strength and aerobic capacity, improves the ability to do daily tasks and fosters a sense of well-being, say numerous studies. The positive effects on muscle strength and aerobic capacity could be translated into an improvement in the activities of daily living, and this is what really makes a difference in your life.
