The long-range positive expectations for maintaining a regular program of exercise are equally important.
Less heart disease. Studies show that a person who exercises has less chance of a heart attack. Exercise appears to increase the high-density lipoproteins (HDL) in the bloodstream and HDL seems to protect the body from hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis).
Dr. Kenneth Cooper says that a half hour of running or brisk walking three times a week is enough to decrease by about 50 percent the average person’s chance of dying from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other chief causes of death. An interesting aspect of this is that women may benefit from exercise even more than men, because exercise helps them increase bone density and prevent osteoporosis.
Less hypertension. People who exercise generally find that their blood pressure decreases. Lower blood pressure is associated with decreased chance of stroke or heart attack.
A study reported in Circulation (83:1557, May, 1991) showed that a single exercise session significantly lowered mild hypertension in the men who were studied. On the average, blood pressure was lowered for thirteen hours after just one exercise session.
Less diabetes. “Increased physical activity is effective in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and the protective benefit is especially pronounced in persons at the highest risk for the disease,” Journal of Medicine (Dr. Helmrich and colleagues, 325: 147-52, 1991). The study showed that a person who exercises has less chance of developing diabetes. Because diabetes increases the risk of stroke, heart attack, and blood vessel disease, it is exciting to know that exercise can decrease the chance of developing diabetes.
Fewer accidents in later life. Studies have shown that older women suffer fractures from falls for two reasons. They cannot see well, and they are in poor physical condition. The first can usually be treated by an ophthalmologist, but the second must be taken care of by the person herself before she gets so “out of shape” that she can no longer exercise and then falls and breaks her bones.
Increased chance of independence and good health in later life. Women who exercise often can continue to be active and healthy as they grow older. It is true that some people seem to inherit “healthy genes,” but you cannot count on that in your own particular situation. You have to assume that you will grow old and debilitated unless you take care of yourself now.
Less pain from job-related demands. Many working Americans develop back, neck, and eye pain that has been assumed to be job-related. Denise Austin, a Loss Angeles-based exercise specialist, however, has discovered that most of these pains are due to lack of exercise rather than to any of the machines that people use in their workday. She has found that by working some easy-to-do exercises into the daily work schedule many of the problems employees develop either disappear or are prevented. Some of these problems are stress-related, and others are due to the position assumed in front of computers, word processors, and typewriters. In spite of the, however, exercise helps.
Less pain from everyday life. Lack of exercise leads to pain with everyday activities. Without exercise, our bodies are much like hot house plants. Away from the storms of life, the plants develop no resistance and strength. Because there has been no wind to make the stem pliable and sturdy, the least little bump will break them. In the same way, without exercise our ligaments and muscles get weak.
Accustomed to daily, routine activities, we function without pain in the realm, unusual activity, though, such as lifting a heavy suitcase or moving a couch may pull a muscle or tear a ligament. When this happens, it’s easy to stop doing even that much physical activity and to think, “I’m getting too old to do that.” This can be a dangerous downward progression of our bodies. It’s not that we’re too old, it’s that we have let our muscles and ligaments get weak, like those hothouse plants. Such occurrences should make us realize that regular exercise must be an important part of our daily lives so that we can do not only the things we need to daily but also the special things we want to do in the future. Our bodies do not have to “grind down into inactivity” in old age. We have the chance now to keep them strong and capable of doing the physical things we want to do.
Copy typed by Shirley-Ann Pearman
An excerpt from pages 816-818 (1240) of “1250 Health-Care Questions Women Ask With Straightforward Answers by an Obstetrician/Gynecologist” (by Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D. with Susan Nethery)
