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Health & Fitness Information

Regular physical activity of the appropriate frequency, duration and intensity has tremendous health benefits and is part of a preventative medicine approach to wellness. Most Americans get little vigorous exercise at work or during leisure hours. People usually ride in cars or buses and watch TV during their free time rather than be physically active. For inactive people, the trick is to get started and best of all, you don't have to train like a marathon runner to become more physically fit!

Evidence suggests that even low-to-moderate intensity activities can have both short and long-term benefits. More vigorous exercise can help improve fitness of the heart and lungs, which can provide consistent benefits for lowering heart disease risk. Today, many people are rediscovering the benefits of regular exercise activities like swimming, brisk walking, running, or jumping rope. These kinds of activities are sometimes called "aerobic" - meaning the body uses oxygen to produce the energy needed for the activity.

Before beginning an exercise program, check with your personal health care professional and start off slow to avoid overexertion and accidents and stick with it. Recent research has found that when it comes to exercise you need a combination of three types - weight training for strength; aerobic exercise for strength and endurance; and calisthenics (stretching, bending, and twisting exercises) for flexibility. Varying the type of physical activity you engage in will help to use all the major muscle groups in your body and avoid overuse of any one major muscle group. It will also prevent boredom.

The Components of Fitness Include:

Flexibility - The movement of a limb around a joint.
Strength - The force produced from a maximal muscular contraction.
Endurance - The ability of the body to sustain physical work.
Nutrition - The body's blood chemistry and body composition.
Mental Health - A proper balance of personality and  the ability to handle stress.

Benefits of Exercise and Physical Activity

Millions of Americans suffer from illnesses that can be prevented or improved through regular physical activity.

• 13.5 million people have coronary heart disease.
• 1.5 million people suffer from a heart attack in a given year.
• 8 million people have adult-onset (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes.
• 95,000 people are newly diagnosed with colon cancer each year.
• 250,000 people suffer from a hip fractures each year.
• 50 million people have high blood pressure.
• Over 60 million people (a third of the population) are overweight.

Exercising has been shown to help with a variety of common medical problems including:

 

Hypertension

The higher your blood pressure, the greater your risk of developing heart disease or stroke. A blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) or greater is generally classified as high blood pressure. This medical problem causes the heart to work harder and can lead to heart failure and arteriosclerosis. Regular physical activity, even of moderate intensity, can help reduce or prevent high blood pressure in some people.

 

Hypercholesterolemia

A blood cholesterol level of 240 mg/dl (milligrams per decaliter) or above is high and increases your risk of heart disease. An elevated cholesterol level has been associated with Atherosclerosis and increased mortality rate. A total blood cholesterol of under 200 mg/dl is desirable and usually puts you at a lower risk of heart disease.

Cholesterol in the blood is transported by different types of particles. One of these particles is a protein called high density lipoprotein or HIDL. HIDL has been called "good" cholesterol because research has shown that high levels of HIDL are linked with a lower risk of coronary artery disease. Regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity is linked with increased HIDL levels and have been shown to produce cholesterol profiles that indicate a lower risk of coronary heart disease.

Osteoporosis

This is caused by a reduction in bone mass and bone mineral content.  Usually an age related disorder, it can make an individual more susceptible to bone fractures.  Exercising places stress on the bones and helps retard bone mineral loss and may increase bone density. Strength training, like lifting weights or exercising against resistance, can make bones stronger and can prevent or slow bone-weakening osteoporosis.

 

Diabetes Mellitus

This condition is caused by the body's inability to handle and metabolize glucose in the blood. The result is an elevated glucose level in the blood. Exercise improves the muscles uptake of glucose and has a continued positive effect for up to 72 hours after an exercise session. A regular regimen of aerobic and weight training can help reduce or eliminate the need for medication in certain diabetic conditions. Sustained aerobic exercise can help to control Late Onset, or Type II, diabetes mellitus since it aids in the metabolism of sucrose.

 

Peripheral Vascular Occlusive Disease

This is a condition of restricted blood flow to the lower extremities of the body as a result of arterial obstruction.  Exercise has been shown to help control this problem and increase the functioning of individuals with this disease.

Low Back Pain

In instances where improper muscle balance and flexibility is a factor in low back pain, a proper exercise program can be effective in restoring flexibility and muscle balance.

Anxiety and Depression

Exercise has been shown to help the brain reach a level of a relaxed meditative like state. It has been speculated that levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain are altered from exercising and have a beneficial impact on anxiety and depression. Light exercise may be good for your mental health. Physical activity appears to relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety and improve mood.

 

Obesity

Excess weight may increase your risk of developing high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes. Regular physical activity can help you maintain your desirable body weight. Physical activity helps to control your weight by using excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. Any physical activity in addition to what you normally do will burn up extra calories. People at their desirable weight are less likely to develop diabetes and exercise may also decrease a diabetic person's need for insulin.

 

Physical Activity and Aging

A high level of fitness is important because it contributes to the quality of life. Staying physically active is key to good health well into later years. Many older people think they are too old or too frail to exercise. More than 60 percent of adults do not achieve the recommended amount of regular physical activity. In fact, 25 percent of all adults are not active at all. Inactivity increases with age. By age 75, about one in three men and one in two women engage in no physical activity. The loss of strength and stamina attributed to aging is in part caused by reduced physical activity. The body adapts to stresses imposed upon it. The less one does, the less the body will be capable of doing. Lack of physical activity causes a phenomenon called disuse atrophy, a condition where the body begins to deteriorate because of non-use.

Not long ago, it was "accepted knowledge" that older people could not increase their muscle strength nor their muscle mass. Now, happily, this myth has been dispelled. In 1989, researchers from Tufts and Harvard Universities undertook a study of older people in their late 80's and 90's. The researchers worked with a group of frail elderly residents at Boston's Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged. These residents had multiple functional problems, chronic conditions and were very sedentary.

At the beginning of the project, the project participants, whose average age was 90, were tested to determine the heaviest weights that they could lift with their legs. Following this initial test, they began a program of weight training. They did three sets composed of eight weight lifting repetitions each for three days a week. They worked out with weights that were 80 percent of the maximum weight that they could lift.

After two weeks, they were retested and the weights were increased. At the end of six weeks, these frail older people had increased their muscle strength on average by 180 percent. What is more, none of the participants had reached a plateau. As a result of their increased muscle strength, their average walking speed increased 48 percent, two participants no longer needed their canes, and one participant was able to rise from a chair without using the chair arms.

All of the participants resumed their sedentary lifestyles at the end of the program. The researchers then retested them, and found a 32 percent loss in maximum strength after only 4 weeks of detraining. The moral of this story is "If you don't use it, you'll lose it," but the happy ending is that you can regain your fitness and strength at almost any age which will help you to retain or regain your independence, freedom, and add to your good looks.

Staying physically fit can give you a body that performs and looks like those of persons years younger than your chronological age. At the VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City Utah, physically fit men in their mid-fifties were compared to inactive men in their mid-20's. The results were astounding. Active older men had lower resting heart rates, 64 beats per minute versus 85 beats per minute for the younger men, higher oxygen uptake during maximum exercise, and slower heart beats in the first minute after exercise than the men in their 20's who did not keep fit. What is more, the older men weighed an average of 166 pounds compared to 192 pounds for the younger sedentary men.

The measurement of age can be expressed in two ways:

• Chronological Age - The age measured according to a calendar
• Physiological Age - The age measured according to how your body is functioning compared to averages found in different age groups.

Physiological Effects of Aging

An individual may be age 42 chronologically, but physiologically his/her body functions like a 22 year old. Mounting evidence has shown proper exercise and nutrition may extend the lifespan, but there is a more important reason for good physical fitness. An increase in body functioning and the body's ability to perform will allow an individual to sustain an enjoyable, productive and independent lifestyle in their latter years of life. The quality of our life is as important as the length of our life.

Here are a few examples of physiologic effects that occur with increasing age and lack of physical exercise:

• Decrease in heart efficiency

• Decrease in lung efficiency

• Increase in blood pressure

• Increase in body fat

• Decrease in flexibility

• Decrease in bone mass

• Decrease in strength

This is a list of some of the adaptations that occur with fitness training:

As you can see from the information above, many of the adaptations that occur with training counteract the effects of aging and inactivity. There are also many training adaptations that can not be measured easily but are also important such as the motivation that is used in a training program that can spill over into other aspects of one's life. Also, self esteem is increased with a change of body image and a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment is felt from participating in a good workout. These adaptations can result from training at any age. 

Whether you’re 40 or 60 years old, you can exercise and improve your health. Physical activity is good for your heart, mood, and confidence. Exercising has even helped 80 and 90 year old people living in nursing homes to grow stronger and more independent. Older people who become more active, including those with medical problems, may feel better and have more energy than ever before. No one is ever too old to benefit from the positive physiological and psychological changes when undertaking a fitness regime.

When challenged with any physical task, the human body responds through a series of integrated changes in function that involve most, if not all, of its physiologic systems. Movement requires activation and control of the musculoskeletal system and the cardiovascular and respiratory systems provide the ability to sustain this movement over extended periods. When the body engages in exercise training several times a week or more frequently, each of these physiologic systems undergoes specific adaptations that increase the body’s efficiency and capacity to perform activities. The magnitude of these changes depends largely on the intensity and duration of the training sessions, the force or load used in training, and the body’s initial level of fitness. Removal of the training stimulus, however, will result in loss of the efficiency and capacity that was gained through these training induced adaptations; this loss is a process called detraining.

With exercise, our bones, particularly our joint bones and the bones of the spinal column, rebuild and repair themselves as they should. Without exercise, they tend to become thin and porous-a condition known as osteoporosis. When we do not exercise, fat displaces muscle, muscles become smaller and weaker, a process known as atrophy, and we gain weight more easily. Unnecessary fat weight puts added stress on our heart and lungs, and on the weight bearing joints of the knees, hips, ankles, and feet.

Being unfit makes it more difficult to climb stairs, get out of a chair, and even to walk and to maintain our balance. Weak muscles cannot protect our joints or help to provide needed strength and balance so we become more prone to falls. Frail bones and weak muscles limit our ability to care for ourselves, live independently and enjoy the later years-years that can and should be a time of productivity and enjoyment.

People are living longer these days and their quality of life depends on being healthy and remaining independent. Staying active can lower your risk for many common diseases, relieve the pain of arthritis and help you to recover faster when you do get sick.

Please review our Education Center section on Fitness & Physical Activity and Health  for more detailed information on health issues, proper exercise training, establishing an exercise program and the benefits of physical activity.