Made to Move

What single behaviour is most important to your health? If you answered, exercise, you’re right. It might come as a surprise to some, but it turns out that exercise contributes more to our good health than any other single lifestyle measure, including eating a healthy diet.

Want to reduce your risk of dying from heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and high blood pressure? Get off the couch and get active. Our bodies were made to move. Studies have shown that exercise reduces the risk of developing and dying from heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, and high blood pressure. In fact, those who get regular exercise generally live longer than inactive people. According to researcher Dick Thijssen and associates, “Low cardiopulmonary fitness is a strong independent predictor of all-cause mortality.” In other words, people who are inactive and not physically fit are more likely to die from all possible causes of death than those who are physically fit.

Exercise is extremely important. After all, we were made to move. Physical activity improves overall health, but it also has numerous benefits for particular conditions. Specifically, exercise

• is more effective in preventing and reducing back pain than many popular interventions,

• prevents or limits osteoporosis,

• reduces risk of developing cataracts and age-related macular degeneration,

• reduces pain and depressed mood in patients with Fibromyalgia, and

• improves movement in people with Parkinson’s disease and facilitates neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to form new connections.

Exercise also helps your immune system function optimally. While the circulatory system has the heart to pump blood to all parts of the body, the lymphatic system, an important part of your immune system, does not have its own pump. Instead, the lymph system depends largely upon the exercise of your muscles for lymph fluid circulation. Here’s how it works. Lymph vessels pass between muscles, so when you exercise, the contraction and relaxation of your muscles pushes and squeezes lymph fluid through its vessels. The movement of lymph fluid is important because the lymph gathers toxins from your cells and puts them in your bloodstream for disposal through the kidneys, colon and lungs. When toxins build up, the lymph nodes in the neck, behind the ears, under the jaws and chin, under the armpits and in the groin can become painful and swollen. Back pain, constipation, fatigue, depression and weight gain can result. Good waste removal is essential to good health. Keeping the lymph system moving is another important reason to have a regular exercise program.

The physical advantages of regular exercise are too numerous to list here. Exercise provides many benefits to brain health, too. Studies have shown that exercise improves cognitive function in adults and children, reduces the risk of dementia and lessens the effects of dementia in those who have it.

It’s never too late to begin an exercise program and almost everyone can participate in some form of physical exercise. Changing sedentary habits and becoming more active can be difficult, though. Many people start an exercise program, only to quit after a few weeks. Here are a few tips to help you begin and stay with a regular exercise program:

• Purchase screen time with exercise. For every minute of exercise you get each day, you can buy one minute of screen time.

• Meet with a friend and encourage one another to stick with it.

• Join a gym.

• Do what you love.

• Mark your calendar. Treat your daily appointment as you would a doctor’s appointment. After all, your health is important.

• Reward yourself for reaching fitness goals with non-food incentives.

Remember that exercising is not an excuse for eating junk or indulging in health-zapping treats. Regular exercise combined with healthy eating is a powerful defense against disease.

• Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, “Physical Activity Fundamental To Preventing Disease,” US Department of Health and Human Services, http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/physicalactivity/ (Accessed March 30, 2014).

• Winfried Häuser, Petra Klose, Jost Langhorst, Babak Moradi, Mario Steinbach, Marcus Schiltenwolf, andAngela Busch, “Efficacy of different types of aerobic exercise in fibromyalgia syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials,” US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2911859/ (Accessed March 30, 2014).

• G. M. Petzinger, B. E. Fisher, S. McEwen, J. A. Beeler, J. P. Walsh, and M. W. Jakowec, “Exercise-enhanced Neuroplasticity Targeting Motor and Cognitive Circuitry in Parkinson’s Disease,” US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3690528/ (Accessed March 30, 2014).

• Jody Braverman, “The Best Exercises for Lymphatic Drainage,” livestrong.com, http://www.livestrong.com/article/93406-exercises-lymphatic-drainage/ (Accessed March 30, 2014).

• Phillip D. Tomporowski, Catherine L. Davis, [...], and Jack A. Naglieri, “Exercise and Children’s Intelligence, Cognition, and Academic Achievement,” PMC, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2748863/ (Accessed March 30, 2014).