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"Break a Sweat to Break Your Stress"
Are you swamped at work? Do you always feel one
step behind trying to catch up on all the chores on your
"to-do" list each day? Do you toss and turn in bed at
night thinking about all the things you should have
accomplished that day, but...
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Exercising to Improve Your Sleep
Studies suggest that exercise helps to promote sleep for individuals with insomnia. Below are some of the benefits exercise provides :
- Adrenaline is released, increasing the heart rate and metabolism, naturally fatiguing the body.
- Brain...
Intelligence of cats part-2
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Staying Toned After Weight Loss
Staying Toned After Weight Loss ------------------------------- Following significant weight loss, it is vital to have an exercise routine to keep your muscles firm and help to tighten the skin. One of the biggest drawbacks to significant weight...
You Can Have Healthy Skin
With new research, new products and new skin protection advice popping up all the time, it is hard to figure out the best things to do to improve and protect your skin. A skin care program is the combination of skin care products and a routine...
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Keep Your Brain Young With Exercise
Scientists have demonstrated that moderately active rats have
healthier DNA and more robust brain cells than their less active
counterparts. This is the first study to show that lifelong
exercise actually decreases cellular aging in the brain.
Enjoyable Light Exercise
In the study, the animals were not forced to run; they only did
as much exercise as they found enjoyable -- what would translate
to a daily 30-minute walk or a light 1-mile run in a human.
Brains Like Rats a Quarter of Their Age
At the end of the experiment, the brains of the rats were
examined. The more active rats were found to have fewer
byproducts of oxidative stress in their brains. In fact, the DNA
for those animals, after two years, looked much like those of
their younger counterparts of only about 6 months of age.
Oxidative Damage
Oxidative damage in the brain contributes to memory loss, and
has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's
disease.
The next step in the research would be to determine which
natural chemicals and mechanisms are triggered by exercise to
fight oxidative stress.
EurekAlert November 12, 2005
Dr. Mercola's Comment:Exercise is, without question, one of the
most powerful tools you can use to help you achieve optimal
health. It is my belief that it is virtually impossible to
achieve without. You can't pay someone to do it for you. You
simply must do it yourself.
I believe this is related to our requirement to have hard
physical labor to obtain our food. Modern society has replaced
the necessity of manual labor but not our genetic requirement to
work. So exercise is merely the replacement for work that most
of us do not do in our normal jobs.
It certainly is true for me as I am typically in front of my
computer monitor for 10-16 hours a day and is one of the primary
reasons why one of my highest priorities is to exercise
regularly. Believe me I plan my schedule around my exercise, not
the other way around. This way exercise is never crowded out due
to schedule conflicts. It just needs to be a high priority if
you are going to do it.
Fortunately even light exercise can make a world of difference
to the health of these rats.
But as one scientist wisely pointed out in this study, there's
one major difference between rats and humans. Putting an
exercise wheel in a small cage will entertain and boost the
physical and mental health of rats, because they will use it.
But buying an exercise bike or a health club membership doesn't
mean you'll ever get
around to using it.
If your goal is to optimize your health, starting an exercise
program is just as important as retooling your diet. To get you
headed in the right direction, try viewing exercise like a drug
that needs to be prescribed precisely to achieve the most
benefits.
The key to exercising effectively is to make sure the variables
below are properly addressed. By doing so, you will ensure all
your hard efforts are not wasted and are having a positive
effect on your body. To aid you in your exercise efforts, there
are three important variables to keep in mind:- Length of
time
- Frequency
- Intensity
I encourage my patients to gradually increase the amount of time
they are exercising to 60 to 90 minutes a day. Initially the
frequency is daily. This is a treatment dose until they
normalize their weight or insulin levels. Once normalized, they
will only need to exercise three to four times a week.
Dr. Al Searsalso hasan intriguingPACE program. He pstrongly
believeslong distance running is not the best exercise for you.
Turns out thatwhat youreally need is a combination of
bothendurance exerciseand anaerobic typesprinting exercises
(weight training will also work) to help increase the instant
dramatic demands on your cardiovascular system that can
precipitate heart attacks,such asin the winter when you might be
shoveling snow.
He has quite a comprehensive program and I would strongly
encourage you to consider reviewing it. I do plan on doing a
more comprehensive review on the PACE program sometime in the
future.
You should exercise hard enough so that it is difficult to talk
to someone next to you. When you are exercising that hard your
cardiovascular system is under such a significant amount of
stress that the mere act of talking makes you unable to provide
your body with enough oxygen. However, if you cannot carry on a
conversation AT ALL, then you have gone too far and need to
decrease the intensity.
To learn more about getting started, you'll want to review some
of the more recent columns I've posted by contributing editors
and exercise experts Paul Chek and Ben Lerner.
About the author:
This article is reprinted from Mercola.com, the world's #1 most
visited and trusted natural/alternative health website. For a
limited time only, you can take the FREE "Metabolic Type Test"
to help you learn the right foods for your particular body type
so you can achieve optimal fitness & health. Just go to
http://www.mercola.com/forms/mt_test.htm right now to take this
quick test!
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