Exercise… Your Drug of Choice, Part II

By Dan Huff, CSCS

www.FitnessFormation.com

In Part I of this series we looked at the addictive quality of exercise. Do you know why you are exercising or are you just doing it for the sake of doing it? Do you have well thought out goals? Are the nice little concepts (lose a few inches, drop a few pounds, get a little stronger) or are the quantifiable (lose 3 inches, drop 7 pounds, get 25% stronger)? Remember that there is a vast difference between exercising every day with a clearly defined goal in mind and exercising everyday because you are addicted to exercise. Don’t get addicted!

In this part of the series we are going to take a slightly different approach. Last time we equated exercise with a bad drug due to it’s addictive nature. This time we are going to equate exercise with the good drugs that have the ability to fight diseases. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get crazy with the science behind all of the information, just be aware that every statement in this article can be backed up by peer reviewed studies and medical journals.

If you have been hiding under a rock for the past 15 years you may not be aware that the single most deadly disease in the world today is cardiovascular disease. And did you know what the leading cause of cardiovascular disease is? Well, according to the American Heart Association it is physical inactivity. Guess what the Surgeon General’s report (1996) says… “regular physical activity or cardiorespiratory fitness decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality in general and of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in particular. Regular physical activity prevents or delays the development of high blood pressure in people with hypertension.” Imagine that, just a little bit of exercise can help you improve your blood pressure and reduce the risk of dying of coronary heart disease.

When it comes to cancer a study from the University of Southern California found that “women who participate in four or more hours of physical activity per week during their reproductive years reduce the risk of breast cancer by 60 percent, compared to inactive women.” Did you catch that? If you can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 60% you would be foolish not to exercise, right?

Now let’s see what the American Diabetes Association has to say about exercise. According to the ADA “exercise promotes the entry of glucose into the cells, helping the body to use its food supply more efficiently and to lower blood sugar levers.” So in plain English, exercise can help to prevent the onset of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (also know as Type I Diabetes). What if you already have Type I Diabetes? Well, since exercise is helpful in controlling the then entry of glucose into your cells and more efficiently lowering blood sugar levels that means that it is helpful in regulating blood sugar for those who already have Type I Diabetes.

For those with Type II Diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes mellitus it is very difficult to maintain normal blood glucose levels. However, as in Type I diabetes, exercising will be very beneficial in the regulation of blood glucose levels.

Here’s a sobering statistic for you –almost 90% of people with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus are overweight. To make matters worse, diabetics have higher then normal blood fat levels putting them at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease (you might want to go back up a few paragraphs and remember that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world).

Speaking of obesity, moderate weight loss can reduce several chronic disease risk factors by 20% to 50%.” (Murray, 1994). Obesity alone has been show to increase the risk for heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and hardening of the arteries.

Ok, you’re young and none of the diseases that were mentioned above relate to you, right? I know the feeling. I’m still young and invincible too. But at least once each year I come down with one of those colds that just won’t go away. At first it’s just a scratchy throat, then it becomes a sore throat with a runny nose, then there is coughing and sneezing and congestion that seems to last for a month not matter what I do. Sound vaguely familiar? Well, regular moderate exercise can held fend off the common cold by increasing the number of white blood cells which are the key to your immune systems ability to fight off foreign organisms.

So with all of the diseases out in the world today there is more evidence everyday that exercise can be beneficial in treatment and/or prevention of just about every one of them. It’s up to you now, do you want to spend your life taking medications with all sorts of side effects that more often then not lead to complications or is exercise going to be your drug of choice?