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Fitness & Wellness

Does Exercise Help You Live Longer?

Exercise is important for a number of different reasons. It improves digestion, increases circulation and helps prevent serious conditions that are life threatening, like stroke, high blood pressure, some types of cancer and type 2 diabetes. Not only does exercise help you lose weight, reducing the risk of obesity, the leading cause of preventable deaths, it increases longevity in other ways.

Exercise is half the dynamic duo that helps you live healthier.

Both a healthy diet and regular exercise are a combination that is known to increase life expectancy. While a healthy diet is the most important, exercise is a close second. Not only does it help lubricate joints, relieving many aches and pains, it also lengthens telomeres. Telomeres act like aglets, those plastic tips on shoelaces. Just like aglets, telomeres protect the DNA and keep it from unraveling. The longer the telomeres, the longer the cell lives and replicates, which slows the aging process by keeping chromosomes intact.

You may have heard of stem cells, but did you realize the adult body continues to create them?

Even seniors still have some stem cells. If they’re active, they have more than people who aren’t active, according to studies. Today, stem cell therapy is used to repair joints and other problems. Before the stem cell therapy, doctors suggest the patient increase activity. That helps the body to increase stem cell production to replace the older cells lost during exercise.

Even couch potatoes can increase exercise, but need to start slowly.

If the hardest thing you’ve done the last few years is lift the remote, you need to increase your exercise, but start slowly, especially if you have a health issue. Increasing the number of steps you take daily is one way. A study in Australia showed that when people went from no exercise to 10,000 steps a day lowered their mortality risk by 40%. Just increasing activity by 3,000 steps lowered the risk of dying significantly, according to another study. You can start with walking and after a few weeks, start a program of exercise in the gym.

  • People with arthritis often forego exercise to avoid pain, but studies show that exercise can actually bring relief. The same is true of back problems. You should work with a trainer to ensure you use the right type of exercise that won’t exacerbate the problem.
  • Exercise helps lower blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels. It boosts nitric oxide levels. Nitric oxide causes blood vessels to relax, so they expand. That makes blood flow easier, lowering blood pressure in the process.
  • The increased circulation caused by exercise can deliver oxygen and nutrient rich blood to all parts of the body. It helps boost brain power, while also boosting overall health of the body.
  • Stress is a killer and exercise is a stress buster. When you’re under stress, your body prepares for fighting or running. Exercise burns off the hormones of stress to help your body return to normal and reduce the risk caused by the changes stress makes.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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