2,000 extra daily steps = 10% lower risk

 

In this global study, adults over 50 who were at high risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes who walked an additional 2,000 steps a day—about 20 minutes of brisk walking—reduced their risk of having a cardiovascular “event,” such as a heart attack or stroke, by 10 percent over the next six years.

“Other than not smoking, nothing comes close to physical activity for prevention,” says Dr. Church. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of papers support it.” Achieving the goal of being physically active for 150 minutes a week, including strength training a couple of days a week, can reduce your cardiovascular risk by about 25 percent, he says. “There’s a dose response, which means the more you exercise, the more you benefit.” The biggest benefit, though, comes from going from sedentary to mildly active, such as walking 10 minutes a day. Says Dr. Church, “The biggest bang is just getting off the couch.”

How to prevent muscle cramps

The muscle spasms or cramps occur when a muscle contracts or involuntarily, which becomes rigid causing pain and discomfort. Often arise at night during sleep or during and after physical exercise. Its causes can be several, from muscle fatigue, lack of minerals and vitamins in the diet to bad postures. Besides knowing treat them properly, it is important to know some tips that can help prevent muscle cramps.

Leading a sedentary life and not doing any physical activity is one of the main causes for the occurrence of muscle cramps. In fact, people who do not exercise in your daily routine are prone to muscle spasms more frequently. That is why sport or follow a regular routine of exercise will help you prevent and also enjoy better health at all times.

Yet it is also true that muscle cramps occur regularly during or after physical exercise, which may be due to prolonged exercise or muscle overload. In this sense, there are certain practices that we can take to prevent muscle cramps in training sessions:

• Prepare the muscles of our body doing a good warming before starting the exercise, and perform stretching exercises at the end, will help prevent muscle cramps or spasms.
• Increase our exercise intensity progressively and gradually. It is also essential not to exercise the body to reach a state of maximum exhaustion. 
• Avoid physical activity when temperatures are extremely high or low.

Another of the most common causes of muscle cramps is the loss of fluids and minerals from the body. Therefore, it is essential to stay well hydrated throughout the day. Do not forget to consume the recommended daily amount of water (2 liters) and, especially, hydrated with plenty of water and sports drinks to make sport and exercise.

Watch your diet is also a key factor in preventing muscle cramps, as its recurrent appearance may be due to a lack of minerals such as potassium, magnesium or sodium in the diet. These minerals are essential to keep our muscles in good shape and regulate the distribution of water in the body.

Try to include in your daily diet foods rich in potassium such as bananas, legumes, green leafy vegetables and nuts, and rich in magnesium such as brown rice, soybeans, dry beans, wheat bran or oat, sunflower seeds, etc. It is also good to consume foods high in vitamins C, D and E.

At bedtime, try not to take bad posture. Remain long with poor posture may involve muscle contractions that lead to the occurrence of nocturnal muscle cramps. This condition also occurs in women who abuse the use of high heels in their day to day.

Finally, a good way to prevent muscle cramps or spasms is by performing massages muscle in those areas of the body in which we usually have. The result will be excellent if we go to a good therapist, but we can also try to make them ourselves if possible.

If we follow the above procedures we will be prevent muscle cramps or spasms problems from our daily life and enjoy a healthy life.

Top 100 Reasons to Exercise

Top 100 Reasons to Exercise

1.  Reduces your risk of getting heart disease. 
2.  Increases your level of muscle strength. 
3.  Improves the functioning of your immune system. 
4.  Enhances sexual desire, performance and satisfaction. 
5.  Helps you to more effectively manage stress. 
6.  Helps you to lose weight especially fat weight. 
7.  Improves the likelihood of survival from a myocardial infarction (heart attack). 
8.  Can help relieve the pain of tension headaches-perhaps the most common type of headache. 
9.  Improves your body’s ability to use fat for energy during physical activity. 
10.  Increases the density and breaking strength of bones. 
11.  Helps to preserve lean body tissue. 
12.  Reduces the risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure). 
13.  Increases the density and breaking strength of ligaments and tendons. 
14.  Improves coronary (heart) circulation. 
15.  Increases circulating levels of HDL (good) cholesterol. 
16.  Assists in efforts to stop smoking. 
17.  Reduces your risk of developing Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes. 
18.  Can help improve short-term memory in older individuals. 
19.  Helps to maintain weight loss-unlike dieting, alone. 
20.  Helps relieve many of the common discomforts of pregnancy (backache, heartburn, constipation, etc.). 
21.  Reduces your anxiety level. 
22.  Helps control blood pressure in people with hypertension. 
23.  Reduces the viscosity of your blood. 
24.  Reduces vulnerability to various cardiac dysrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms). 
25.  Increases your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max-perhaps the best measure of your physical working capacity). 
26.  Helps to overcome jet lag. 
27.  Slows the rate of joint degeneration in people with osteoarthritis. 
28.  Lowers your resting heart rate. 
29.  Helps to boost creativity. 
30.  Reduces circulating levels of triglycerides. 
31.  Helps the body resist upper respiratory tract infections. 
32.  Increases your anaerobic threshold, allowing you to work or exercise longer at a higher level, before a significant amount of lactic acid builds up. 
33.  Reduces medical and healthcare expenses. 
34.  Improves ability to recover from physical exertion. 
35.  Helps speed recovery from chemotherapy treatments. 
36.  Increases ability to supply blood to the skin for cooling. 
37.  Increases the thickness of the cartilage in your joints. 
38.  Gives you more energy to meet the demands of daily life, and provides you with a reserve to meet the demands of unexpected emergencies. 
39.  Increases your level of muscle endurance. 
40.  Helps you sleep easier and better. 
41.  Improves posture. 
42.  Improves athletic performance. 
43.  Helps you to maintain your resting metabolic rate. 
44.  Reduces the risk of developing colon cancer. 
45.  Increases your tissues’ responsiveness to the actions of insulin (i.e., improves tissue sensitivity for insulin), helping to better control blood sugar, particularly if you are a Type II diabetic. 
46.  Helps to relieve constipation. 
47.  Expands blood plasma volume. 
48.  Reduces the risk of developing prostate cancer. 
49.  Helps to combat substance abuse. 
50.  Helps to alleviate depression. 
51.  Increases your ability to adapt to cold environments. 
52.  Helps you maintain proper muscle balance. 
53.  Reduces the rate and severity of medical complications associated with hypertension. 
54.  Helps to alleviate certain menstrual symptoms. 
55.  Lowers your heart rate response to submaximal physical exertion. 
56.  Helps to alleviate low-back pain. 
57.  Helps to reduce the amount of insulin required to control blood sugar levels in Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetics. 
58.  Improves mental alertness. 
59.  Improves respiratory muscle strength and muscle endurance-particularly important for asthmatics. 
60.  Reduces your risk of having a stroke. 
61.  Helps you to burn excess calories. 
62.  Increases your cardiac reserve. 
63.  Improves your physical appearance. 
64.  Offsets some of the negative side-effects of certain antihypertensive drugs. 
65.  Increases your stroke volume (the amount of blood the heart pumps with each beat). 
66.  Improves your self-esteem. 
67.  Reduces your susceptibility for coronary thrombosis (a clot in an artery that supplies the heart with blood). 
68.  Helps you to relax. 
69.  Reduces the risk of developing breast cancer. 
70.  Improves mental cognition (a short-term effect only). 
71.  Maintains or improves joint flexibility. 
72.  Improves your glucose tolerance. 
73.  Reduces workdays missed due to illness. 
74.  Protects against “creeping obesity” (the slow but steady weight gain that occurs as you age). 
75.  Enhances your muscles’ abilities to extract oxygen from your blood. 
76.  Increases your productivity at work. 
77.  Reduces your likelihood of developing low-back problems. 
78.  Improves your balance and coordination. 
79.  Allows you to consume greater quantities of food and still maintain caloric balance. 
80.  Provides protection against injury. 
81.  Decreases (by 20 to 30 percent) the need for antihypertensive medication, if you are hypertensive. 
82.  Improves your decision making abilities. 
83.  Helps reduce and prevent the immediate symptoms of menopause (hot flashes, sleep disturbances, irritability), and decrease the long-term risks of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and obesity. 
84.  Helps to relieve and prevent “migraine headache attacks”. 
85.  Reduces the risk of endometriosis (a common cause of infertility). 
86.  Helps to retard bone loss as you age, thereby reducing your risk of developing osteoporosis. 
87.  Helps decrease your appetite (a short-term effect only). 
88.  Improves pain tolerance and mood if you suffer from osteoarthritis. 
89.  Helps prevent and relieve the stresses that cause carpal tunnel syndrome.     
90.  Makes your heart a more efficient pump. 
91.  Helps to decrease left ventricular hypertrophy (a thickening of the walls of the left ventricle) in people with hypertension. 
92.  Improves your mood. 
93.  Helps to increase your overall health awareness. 
94.  Reduces the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. 
95.  Helps you to maintain an independent lifestyle. 
96.  Reduces the level of abdominal obesity a significant health-risk factor. 
97.  Increases the diffusion capacity of the lungs, enhances the exchange of oxygen from your lungs to your blood. 
98.  Improves heat tolerance. 
99.  Improves your overall quality of life. 
100. Lifelong regular exercise may be protective against the development ofAlzheimer’s disease. 

Exercise in Health and Disease

Exercise in Health and Disease

A world famous physical educationist, Eugene Sandow, has very aptly said, " Life is movement, stagnation is death. " Physical exercise is essential for the maintenance of normal condition of life. Lack of natural exercise is one of the chief causes of weakness and ill-health. In recent years, the need for exercise has been recognised even in sickness. Physio and occupational therapy are now standard procedures in medicine to
restore the use of muscles and nerves that have been injured by disease or by accident. Patients with organic ailments are now advised to stay in bed for the minimum period considered necessary.

Exercise and Activity
For corrective living, it is essential to differentiate between exercise and activity. While both are important as they are involved in vital physical movement, they vary in degree and benefits. Both employ the body in voluntary movement. Activity uses the body to a limited degree and generally to achieve a specific purpose. Exercise employs the body over the widest possible range of movement for the particular purpose of maintaining or acquiring muscle tone and control with maximum joint flexibility.

Activity requires less physical effort and often less conscious effort once the routine has been established. Exercise demands considerable physical effort and is more beneficial as mental concentration is simultaneously employed.
Benefits
Systematic physical exercise has many benefits. The more important benefits are mentioned below :
1. Regular exercise taken properly can achieve the increased use of food by the body,which contributes to health and fitness. The basal metabolic rate and habitual body temperature will slowly rise during several weeks of physical exercise, if the programme is not too hard. The healthy person usually has abundant body heat and a warm radiant glow.

2. Regular progressive physical exercise can bring about the balance of automatic, or involuntary , nervous system. The tone of the vagus nerve, one of the nerves that control sensation and motion, is strengthened. This accounts for stronger pulse waves, higher metabolism and better circulation.

3. Exercise can prevent or reduce gravitational ptosis or sag, as it is commonly called.Ptosis results from uneven flow of blood in the feet, legs and lower abdomen.

4. Improved capillary action in the working of muscular and brain tissue results from exercise carried to the point of real endurance. This permits greater blood flow and gives the muscles, including the heart, more resistance to fatigue. Massage, heat and moderate exercise are relatively ineffective in producing additional
capillary action as compared with vigorous exercise.

5. The full use of the lungs in vigorous exercise can reduce or prevent lung congestion due to lymph accumulation.

6. Gas and intra-intestinal accumulations can be reduced by exercise that acts to knead and squeeze or vibrate the intraintestinal mass.

7. Better respiratory reserve is developed by persistent exercise. This ensures better breath holding, especially after a standard exercise. With greater respiratory reserves, exercise become easier.

8. Improvement in tone and function of veins can be accomplished by repetitiously squeezing and draining the blood out of them and then allowing them to fill.

9. Sweating in exercise aids kidneys by helping to eliminate the waste matter from the body.

10. Consistent exercise leads to improvement in quality of blood. Studies have shown improved haemoglobin levels, relatively greater alkalinity, improved total protein content and a grater red cell count. Systemic exercise promotes physical strength and mental vigour and strengthens will power  and self control leading to harmonious development of the whole system.

Physical Activity & Health

  Your Health and Physical Activity

Live longer and Better

Surely you appreciative that practicing approved concrete action is all-important and acceptable health, but how physically alive can help? If you're an actuality alive enough...

You accept an abundant advantage; active body’s alive best and better. Try to accumulate this addiction throughout life.

There are analytical times for the abandonment, gluttonous abutment and solutions at the moment: change of academy or educational stage, acting illnesses acknowledgment to work, accident of concrete limitations ... In these times can additionally admonition advance a appearance alive life: use the car beneath and airing or bike move, aggressive stairs, comedy with accoutrement ...

If you're not alive abundant / to ... What can admonition you physically active?

• Improve your bloom and anticipate disease: abbreviation the accident of alike to get affection ache and aerial claret pressure, accept diabetes and you admonition control, lowers cholesterol, reduces the accident of osteoporosis, helps to anticipate constipation.
• In the aged slows the abatement of mind, improves anatomic accommodation and decreases the accident of falls.

• Exerts a bashful action in preventing breast cancer, colon and prostate.
• Improve fitness: endurance, strength, flexibility, agility, breathing, circulation.
• Next to the diet is capital in authoritative your anatomy weight.
• Facilitates you to chronicle with others.
• Improve your faculty of able-bodied actuality and reduces stress. Prevents and helps advance the depression.
• Increase your self-esteem and advance your mood.
• Improve your bookish performance.

The minimum and essential:

It would be ½ hours of abstinent concrete action (being apparent to access the beating amount and sweating) 5 days a week. This ½ hour can be accumulated throughout the day beneath periods of time. Alpha boring and gradually increase. The adolescence at atomic one hour.

Recommendation:

Moderate concrete action 5 days a week including one hour here also activities of circadian alive (commuting to assignment or abstraction center, walking the dog, booty the kids to school, up and bottom ward stairs ...). You can complete this affairs accomplishing contest to advance backbone and addition 2 days a week.

What I can convenience activity?

Perhaps you've anytime anticipation that this concrete action is article aloof for the adolescent or to athletes and to be taken beneath appropriate conditions. You may anticipate you accept to suffer, or that generates affliction or that you cannot do. Error! Anyone at any age can admit a abstinent concrete activity. The anatomy consistently welcome.

You can alpha demography an active lifestyle. Change your circadian habits: airing whenever you can, use your car less, absolute TV time or sitting sofa, arena with the children, put music to do appointment and booty the befalling to move added ... Accomplish it with a pedometer (step meter) can be challenging, advance is to 10,000 accomplish a day.

Find an action you accept a good time and accomplish abiding you accept a good time performing it, either by free

(Walking, swimming, cycling, gym ...) or directed (courses in gymnastics, dance, aerobics, tennis, activities in a club or gym ...) there are lots of options, prices, schedules ... sure

There is an action that fits you.

Where I can acquisition admonition or advice?

If you accept questions or would like to admonish you seek admonition from your ancestors doctor and you can go to your board account marina, breadth you will be abreast of the activities accessible in your area.

The Key For Healthy Lifestyle

·1        Healthy food is essential.

You are what you eat, so if you eat healthy, you are healthy. If you're just starting to have a healthy lifestyle, you probably don't know healthy food.Food that is low in fat content is good. Unless that fat is poly-unsaturated, mono-unsaturated, or omega 3. These are some of the good fats. Some of the bad fats are trans and saturated fats. These fats raise your LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol. The good fats lower your LDL cholesterol and raise your HDL cholesterol, which is the good cholesterol.

• Low sugar content is another plus.. Sucrose is the bad kind of sugar. Glucose is the good kind of sugar. Both are sugar, so both are classified as sugar, on the label. For example, raisins that don't have sugar added still have a lot of sugar, but it's a naturally occurring sugar, fructose. Any ingredient on a food label ended with "ose" is a type of sugar.
• Eat a variety of food. Fruits and vegetables are high in vitamins and minerals, which you need, but you still need some other vitamins and minerals. For example, not much protein comes from fruits or vegetables. Meat, beans, and tofu are good sources of protein. If you can't get your vitamins and minerals from the food you eat, you can always take a multivitamin.

·  2      Exercise is key for a healthy lifestyle as well.

 Go to the gym every once in a while, or daily. Or take a run around your neighborhood. Even taking your dog for a walk is good. So long as it's routine, about an hour, and is at least moderately active. Frequent and routine exercise everyday helps boost the immune system; helps prevent the “disease of affluence” such as: heart disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. It also improves mental health, and prevent depression.

·  3      Dedication.

 It's not easy to go from a couch potato to a healthy person. Don't be discouraged if you have to satisfy your cravings for ice cream, hamburgers, etc. As long as you don't have a steady diet of unhealthy food, it won't hurt you too much.

·  4      Don't yo-yo diet!

Yo-yo dieting is bad for you and even if they sound healthy, once you stop that diet you can pile on the weight in just a couple of days! Stay away from Slimfast, soup diets and diets which you have to eat or drink contents from a packet.

·  5      Don't abuse your body.

Don't work out too much because it can cause your body to not function properly when you work out. It is best to leave a day or two off to get back your energy.

·  6      Regulate your weight.

Being too fat or skinny isn't good for you. Your doctor can tell you if you are under or over weight. Exercise and the food you eat can change your weight, so keep that in mind.

·  7      Stay Clean.

Everyone should have 1 shower per day. Have another if you have had a particularly hot or sweaty time. Put on an antiperspirant after your shower. Change your underwear and socks every day, too.

·  8      Enjoy Yourself for healthy lifestyle.

Don't stress yourself over anything. Have fun! Stress can tense your muscles, which will make you feel unhappy and unwell. If you worry too much about your health, you'll be making it worse, so just relax once in a while.

Tips to Avoid Weight Gain During the Holidays

1. FILL UP ON MORE SENSIBLE FOODS
Foods that are high in fiber or water fill you up quickly and help keep you from overindulging on the "bad" stuff. Take an extra scoop of vegetables and fruit when filling your plate, and by the time you finish, you won't have room for the other foods which are higher in calories and more likely to cause you to gain weight.


2. EAT SMALLER PORTIONS
No doubt, everything at the table looks good, and it's all you can do to keep from filling your plate 2-3 times so that you can sample everything. An easy way to combat this urge is to simply take a smaller portion than you normally would of those dishes you're most interested in, especially belt-bursting desserts. Split a piece of pie or cake with your spouse, child, or another family member who may be watching his or her waistline.

3. DRINK AROUND, DURING, AND BETWEEN MEALS
Drink a fair amount of water or other unsweetened beverage before each meal, as well as during and between them. The liquid in your stomach will help trick your mind into not feeling as hungry, which reduces the tendency to gorge yourself on potentially fattening foods.

4. POSITION YOURSELF AWAY FROM THE SNACKS
If you take a seat within an arm's reach of the snack table, you're going to have a tough time keeping yourself from unconsciously grabbing handfuls of party mix, candies, and the like and picking at them all day. By sitting on the other side of the room, getting to the snacks involves a conscious effort into getting up and walking over to get at the snacks.

5. TAKE AN EXERCISE BREAK
If the weather permits it, go out and take a quick walk around the house or block. If your celebration is taking place in a colder climate, you'll be more inspired to quicken your pace and burn a few extra calories in the process. If the weather is bad, do 10-20 squats, stretches, or other brief exercise each time you go to the restroom. You only want to do just enough to elevate your heart rate, but not break out into a sweat. Chances are, no one will know what you're doing, and you won't have to feel self-conscious about trying to maintain your figure.

Finally, if you still manage to put on a few extra pounds, don't stress over it. If you've been following a sensible diet and exercise plan, the chances are good that any weight you do gain is going to come off shortly after the holidays are over.

Exercise? No Excuses

Want to add years to your life? Make regular, moderate exercise part of your healthy lifestyle routine. Physical activity is good for the body, mind and spirit, helps maintain and improve the health of your heart, reduces the risk of diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's, promotes energy, quality rest and a healthy weight, helps manage unhealthy stress, and can address symptoms of mild to moderate depression.

So why isn't everyone exercising? People can always find excuses not to exercise, but really - there is no good reason. To reap all these benefits, all most people need is 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity at least four days a week, including at least two days of strength training, and a stretching routine.

It's simple to begin: rent fitness DVDs, join a gym, make an appointment with a personal trainer, or simply get some friends together for daily walks or bike rides.

1. Exercise improves your mood.

Need to blow off some steam after a stressful day? A workout at the gym or a brisk 30-minute walk can help you calm down.

Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed than you were before you worked out. You'll also look better and feel better when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem. Regular physical activity can even help prevent depression.

2. Exercise combats chronic diseases.

Worried about heart disease? Hoping to prevent osteoporosis? Physical activity might be the ticket.

Regular physical activity can help you prevent — or manage — high blood pressure. Your cholesterol will benefit, too. Regular physical activity boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol while decreasing triglycerides. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly by lowering the buildup of plaques in your arteries.

And there's more. Regular physical activity can help you prevent type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and certain types of cancer.

3. Exercise helps you manage your weight.

Want to drop those excess pounds? Trade some couch time for walking or other physical activities.

This one's a no-brainer. When you engage in physical activity, you burn calories. The more intense the activity, the more calories you burn — and the easier it is to keep your weight under control. You don't even need to set aside major chunks of time for working out. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk during your lunch break. Do jumping jacks during commercials. Better yet, turn off the TV and take a brisk walk. Dedicated workouts are great, but physical activity you accumulate throughout the day helps you burn calories, too.

4. Exercise boosts your energy level.

Winded by grocery shopping or household chores? Don't throw in the towel. Regular physical activity can leave you breathing easier.

Physical activity delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. In fact, regular physical activity helps your entire cardiovascular system — the circulation of blood through your heart and blood vessels — work more efficiently. Big deal? You bet! When your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you'll have more energy to do the things you enjoy.

5. Exercise promotes better sleep.

Struggling to fall asleep? Or stay asleep? It might help to boost your physical activity during the day.

A good night's sleep can improve your concentration, productivity and mood. And you guessed it — physical activity is sometimes the key to better sleep. Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep faster and deepen your sleep. There's a caveat, however. If you exercise too close to bedtime, you may be too energized to fall asleep. If you're having trouble sleeping, you might want to exercise earlier in the day.

6. Exercise can put the spark back into your sex life.

Are you too tired to have sex? Or feeling too out of shape to enjoy physical intimacy? Physical activity to the rescue.

Regular physical activity can leave you feeling energized and looking better, which may have a positive effect on your sex life. But there's more to it than that. Regular physical activity can lead to enhanced arousal for women, and men who exercise regularly are less likely to have problems with erectile dysfunction than are men who don't exercise — especially as they get older.

7. Exercise can be — gasp — fun!

Wondering what to do on a Saturday afternoon? Looking for an activity that suits the entire family? Get physical!

Physical activity doesn't have to be drudgery. Take a ballroom dancing class. Check out a local climbing wall or hiking trail. Push your kids on the swings or climb with them on the jungle gym. Plan a neighborhood kickball or touch football game. Find a physical activity you enjoy, and go for it. If you get bored, try something new. If you're moving, it counts!

Are you convinced? Good. Start reaping the benefits of regular physical activity today!