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The Benefits of Exercise
Exercise prevents cancer.
Studies show that one-third of cancer deaths can be linked to diet and sedentary lifestyle.
Exercise prevents heart attacks and heart disease.
An inactive person’s heart works much harder than an active person’s heart. Exercise, ironically, rests your heart. Regular exercise eventually enlarges the coronary arteries, improving blood flow. As the heart grows stronger, it beats fewer times, meaning the heart is at rest more often.
Exercise improves lymphatic flow.
The lymphatic system removes toxins and cellular waste, and it “keeps the peace” by rounding up bacteria, viruses, and other bad guys, bringing them to the lymph nodes where they are killed by white blood cells. Aerobic exercise can triple the rate of lymphatic flow. No exercise causes the system to become sluggish.
Exercise lowers stress.
Regular exercise enhances neurotransmitter production and helps to lower cortisol levels, which helps you feel less stressed. Exercising literally burns off stress chemicals.
Exercise promotes weight loss and decreases appetite.
Weight training and calisthenics are exercises that increase your muscle mass, which raises your metabolic rate and enables you to burn more fat. It is perhaps the safest method of raising your metabolic rate, which is the rate at which your body converts food into energy. Moderate aerobic exercise is quite effective at decreasing your appetite, but you must be in your target heart rate. Exercising too intensely may cause you to develop a ravenous appetite an hour or so after exercising due to hypoglycemia or low blood sugar.
Exercise may help prevent diabetes and help control low blood sugar in diabetics.
Exercise improves the body’s ability to use insulin.
Exercise increases perspiration.
Sweating is one of the body’s best ways of getting rid of waste products.
Excerpt from The Seven Pillars of Health by Dr. Don Colbert
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