WHAT if there was a pill that helped keep your heart, joints, bones and mind healthy? What if this pill also helped prevent some types of cancers? You would want to take this pill every day to help keep your body at its best. Sorry to tell you but there is no magic pill.
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But there is something else you can do each day that gives you same benefit – exercise.
Exercise helps to control your weight. Gaining more than 10 kilograms since your early 20s is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Keeping your weight under control helps to avoid cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep apnoea, asthma, back pain, polycystic ovary syndrome and gall bladder disease.
Keeping your heart healthy with exercise helps to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol at healthy levels.
Moving your muscles means they use more fuel, keeping your blood sugar at the desired level. Keeping muscles strong helps to prevent osteoarthritis and improve existing osteoarthritis by taking pressure of the joints.
As well as helping the body, exercise helps the mind. By improving blood flow to the brain the growth and survival of nerve cells is stimulated.
People who exercise also have fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety. And it doesn’t matter what sort of exercise you do. Both aerobic and resistance training have been shown to be beneficial to your mental health.
According to the 2007-2008 National Health Survey, 72 per cent of people over the age of 15 have low exercise levels.
Being physically inactive is second to smoking as the most preventable disease risk factor that contributes to Australia’s health problems.
So how much exercise should we do to get all of these benefits? Only 30 minutes each day. And the best exercise to do? The one you enjoy.
If you enjoy the exercise you are participating in, the more likely you are to continue it. So whether it is individual or team sports, just find what you like and go with it.
