“Your
body is a temple of God, take good care of it” You may have heard of this
statement before. Although a lot
of people are aware of the importance of taking care of their body, but many
more do not take good care of their own body because to keep body fit, we need to
have will power, and persistence.
Perhaps we need a little motivation on why we should keep body fit.
You
may have heard that obesity is a real problem in America today especially
childhood obesity. When children
start their lives being obese, they grow up into adulthood with bad eating
habits and life style. Expert
projected that by the year 2020, six years from now, 72% of American women will
be overweight.
We
can turn this trend around by starting a movement for physical activities called
exercise that help us burn fat.
There are several simple ways to exercise: brisk walk, bicycling, push-up,
and planking, which can burn lots of fat.
I will not discuss how to do exercise at this time but would write about
its benefits that I hope will motivate all of us including myself to move our
body and keep fit!
Benefits of
Exercise
1. Preventing Diseases
Overweight
people are prone to develop diseases.
Why
do we have to be concerned about obesity?
Being overweight can negatively affect your body and lead you to develop
diseases such as heart decease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke,
Rheumatoid Arthritis, and even some forms of cancer. So the first benefit of physical activities and exercise is that
they prevent diseases that I just mentioned.
Let’s take the number one leading cause of death in America, Heart
Disease. Cardiovascular or heart disease is the leading cause of death in
America. Although there are
numerous possible causes to heart disease and failure, studies show that vigorous
physical activities can reduce the risk of heart disease by making coronary
arteries more flexible and reducing cholesterol level. This is supported by the results of studies
such as Stanford University (Haskell, 1993) study on exercise and heart disease.
According to the study, risk of heart
attacks, which are caused by inadequate blood flow to the heart, is reduced by
exercise. In the experiments, it
was proven that runners’ arteries expanded twice as much as non-runners.
The link below will show research and studies that prove that
exercise prevents other diseases as well.
The
direct benefits of exercise for health can translate into savings when one is
healthy, meaning being healthy has indirect effect of helping you save on
health care costs, and keep your wealth.
We all know that if you are not
healthy medical costs can take a chunk of your savings. You will have more money left to enjoy
life.
2. Keep You Young
When we think of old people, we
would think of dementia or loss of memory. Physical health and mental health go hand in hand. There are evidences that one of the
effects of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke is memory
loss, but exercise increase the connection between brain cells and
enhances neurotransmitter function.
A 6-year study of 1,740 adult
aged between 65 and older reported in Annals of Internal Medicine in 2006 reported
that the group that exercise three or more times a week had only 13 of 1,000
risk of dementia, whereas those who exercised less than three times a week had
20 in 1,000 risk of dementia.
3. Make Your Look Beautiful
Exercise does not only help fend
off dementia, it enhances your look and stay young looking. Let me show you this picture of me about 40 years ago. Although there was a
time that I did not have exercise, but after starting my regular exercise at
least three times a week since 2008, I am able to keep fit with little or no
sick time for work. Because of
exercise, I feel less stressful and am able to sleep quite well every night
(although I might need more hours to sleep, but that’s another subject)
To look young, your
skin needs to look vibrant, and according to WebMD, regular exercise is one of
the keys to healthy skin.
Dermatologist
Ellen Marmur, MD, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine said that: By increasing blood flow, exercise helps
nourish skin cells and keep them vital.
Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to working cells throughout the body,
including skin, says Dr. Marmur.
By increasing blood flow, exercise helps flush cellular debris out of
the system, and makes one’s skin look vibrant and beautiful.
Conclusion
There are many
other benefits of exercise, but I just want to focus on the three that are important
elements of living an active, vibrant, healthy, and long life. I urge you to get on with it today,
because exercise keeps you healthy, young, and beautiful.
