Health News

HEALTH NEWS

“Live healthy...Live well”

Dedicated to providing pertinent information on health, fitness, and nutrition to foster a culture of wellness among Southwest Airlines flight crews and their families.

by Larry Kline

email: livehealthy-livewell@cox.net

EXERCISE AND THE BODY – from about age 40 to 50 on, we start to lose 1 to 2 percent of our muscle every year.  Retaining muscle strength and function is critical for healthy aging and avoiding disability.  There is no pill for that goal.  Physical activity is about the best thing current science knows for maintaining physical function.  If you do not use it, you will lose it!

EXERCISE FOR STRENGTHENING BONE

            We lose bone as we age, and we lose the strength of the bone.  The more weight and stress you put on the bone, the more it grows.  Physical activity is a tremendous way to maintain bone strength.

EXERCISE AND THE BRAIN

            Exercise is a very good treatment for depression, to lower anxiety and stress levels, to feel energized, and to improve sleep.  A physically active lifestyle may be one of the most important things for preventing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

            Exercise has been proven important in preventing both Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, which is caused by clogged blood vessels in the brain – another form of cardiovascular disease.  Exercise lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease and also lowers blood sugar.  There is evidence that high blood sugar increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.  The same risk factors that increase the chances of cardiovascular disease also increase the risk for diseases of the brain as they both are dependent of blood flow.

DIABETES

            Diabetes, high levels of insulin, and lack of blood sugar control are bad for the heart and the brain.  Diabetes and heart disease go hand in hand.  Exercise is a great way at keeping blood sugar and insulin lower.

            Diabetes is a failure of the body to control the amount of sugar in the blood.  It is also a disease of the muscle because skeletal muscle is the biggest consumer of sugar in the body.  When muscle is healthy, it is consuming blood sugar constantly – when it is not healthy, sugar is not consumed and remains in the blood.

            If a person with diabetes does a session of physical activity, for the next 48 hours their muscles will be consuming more blood sugar.  So it is not just the exercise, but the exercise aftermath that is beneficial.  If one starts stringing together those 48-hour periods together, you get long-term benefits.  Physical activity is central for preventing and controlling diabetes.

            Exercise also makes the muscles more active in pulling sugar out of the blood and it makes the body more sensitive to insulin.

EXERCISE AND THE HEART

            Most people know that physical activity has benefits when it comes to cardiovascular disease.  Exercise improves the health of the blood vessels.  It allows them to open up more and improves the effect of the nervous system on the heart.  When you exercise, the nervous system shifts from the sympathetic tone, which is the stress tone, to the parasympathetic tone, which is the rest tone.  That is why people who are physically active have lower heart rates.  If you have more of the stress tone and you have a heart attack, you are more likely to go into deadly arrhythmia – a loss of the regular heartbeat.  The calm and relaxation that comes with being physically active helps both the head and the heart.

            Additionally, those with stronger rest tones tend to sleep better with fewer sleep problems.

            Exercise increases the density of capillaries – the smallest blood vessels – as well as the number of receptors on cells, the number of channels in cells to let blood sugar in, and the number of mitochondria, which burns blood sugar for energy in cells.  The blood volume expands as you exercise, which is also beneficial.

            Blood pressure may also benefit from consistent exercise, although genetics also plays a major factor in determining blood pressure, which may be difficult to override.  It is important for people not to focus on one risk factor, but to consider multiple indicators of health.

            Certainly heart function declines as people age – there is a natural degradation, but exercise can reduce that decline.  There is never a point when exercise no longer helps.  Studies on 70-to-90-year-olds who were sedentary when started showed a benefit for markers of disability.

WEIGHT

            Physical activity can contribute to not putting on weight and to losing weight, but if you want to lose a fair amount of weight, it will take both being physically active and eating less.  Remember that it is not just what you weight, but where you weigh.  Weight in the abdomen is particularly dangerous and physical exercise helps decrease belly fat.  This is why one can achieve the benefits of physical activity without substantial weight loss (the weight loss that does occur is in the abdomen).

            Belly fat is dangerous because it is associated with an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease.  Fat cells in the abdomen are different that fat cells in the thigh or arms.  Abdominal fat cells produce more harmful substances.  Second is the plumbing in the abdomen. Abdominal fat drains directly to the liver.  Any harmful substances that belly fat produces go directly to the liver, rather than circulating around the body and degrading.

EXERCISE Rx

            As of 2008, there have been federal physical activity guidelines which recommend 150 minutes a week of brisk walking.  If you are a runner or jogger, the goal is 75 minutes a week.  Additionally, it is recommended to get at least two days a week of weight/resistance training.

            While 150 minutes/week is the goal, if that is too much, even 80 to 100 minutes/week is capable of considerable benefit.  Anything is better than nothing. 

            While walking is the most popular form of exercise, biking or swimming or even dancing – whatever you like to do – yields tremendous benefit.  Just not being sedentary is the main goal…be active and healthy.

            Weight training should not take more than about 20 minutes – enough for one circuit of about eight different exercises – one for each major muscle group.  You can do two sets of 10 to 12 reps per machine or muscle group. Start with 10 reps.  As soon as you can do two sets of 12 reps, increase the weight or resistance.  Lower weights are recommended for beginners, with higher reps to reduce the risk of injury. With weight training, it is a good idea to have a fitness instructor or instructional video for beginners to help ensure good form and reduce the risk of injury. 

            The combination of aerobic exercise and weight training results in both cardio-health and retaining muscle-mass for mobility and a better, longer life. Nutrition Action Healthletter, 12/12.

Vitamin D Levels Decreasing - Women with health issues such as arthritis, hypothyroidism, cancer, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis are much more likely to have inadequate levels of vitamin D during seasons with decreased daylight. 28 percent of women had deficient levels and 33 percent had insufficient levels of vitamin D. Women taking supplements were able to significantly elevate their vitamin D levels. American Society for Clinical Pathology, 11/12.