How exercise can help your overall health

‘Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body’
Joseph Addison

There have been so many studies conducted that link daily exercise with staying healthy.  Regardless of age physical activity is important for everyone whether you walk, jog, swim or dance. There is an activity that you can fit into your lifestyle and help you stay fit.

Exercise recommendation

Within the various theories on physical activity, one consistent theme is the minimum required time that one should exercise. All the philosophies advocate for an hour a day for at least 3-4 times a week. This can be broken down into 10-minute intervals over the course of 6 hours. Doable right?

However, if you haven’t been active for a while, advice is not to dive right in, you will need to be smart and take it slowly, otherwise you might do more harm than good.

Walking is the easiest and safest form of exercise.  You could go for brisk walk for 10 minutes through the day, no cost is required. This is a great starting point for someone that isn’t particularly active.  Ensure to walk a steady brisk pace; the idea is to get our heart rate slightly elevated, this will  get your heart pumping that oxygen around your body.

Exercise benefits

Staying active is said not to only beneficial for a person’s physical well-being but also mental, emotional and inner well-being.

Let’s delve deeper into the areas that exercise has seen to benefit;

• Lowering the risk of dementia and depression.
  

  Did you know when you exercise your brain is also hard at work creating serotonin and norepinephrine, which relieve feelings of depression, anxiety and stress.

• Reduce the chances of obesity
  

  Physical activity increases your energy expenditure, decreasing fat around the waist and in turn slowing down the development of abdominal obesity.

• Reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease
  

  Not only does the effects of physical activity reduce blood pressure, but also reduces LDL cholesterol (the bad one) and increases the good type HDL. As a result, it improves your body taking in and using oxygen.  Most importantly this all helps to reduce chances of a heart attack or other cardiac events.

• Reduce the risk of Type 2 Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome
  

  Activity of all sorts favourably affects the body’s ability to use insulin that controls glucose levels in the blood.  Therefore, when exercising your muscles need more glucose to supply energy and the insulin helps your muscles take in glucose. As a result, lowering your glucose rather than backing it up causing a high blood glucose level.

• Reduce the risk of of some cancers

  Dozens of studies have shown exercise to reduce colon cancer compared to that of an inactive person. When you exercise digestive acids occur and these acids are said to provide some protection from colon cancer. The decrease of body fat and insulin contribute to lowering colon cancer risk. Women found with high levels of estrogen have a higher risk of breast cancer. Exercising lowers the level of estrogen therefore lowering the risk of breast cancer.

• Strengthen bones and muscles
  

  Weight lifting and other muscle activities helps build muscle mass.  This helps improve posture, increase metabolism and reduce risk of injury.

• Increases the chances of living longer
  

  With all the above health benefits, it’s no wonder as to why anyone would increase their chances of living longer.  Being physically active does have all round benefits, not forgetting the social aspect getting out and meeting new people.

If you have any existing health conditions, please seek medical advice first from your GP / medical expert for suggestions on how you can get active.

How can Cavendish Homecare help?

At Cavendish Homecare, we provide private homecare for people who need additional support in their own home. If you are looking for homecare services, contact us or email us at info@cavendishhomecare.com.

Our team of nurses and carers is equipped to provide comprehensive care to clients based in London and the home counties, including Kensington and Chelsea, Harrow, Twickenham, Westminster, Camden, and Surrey. We remain flexible to accommodate care requests in other areas, contingent upon available accommodation provisions.