If you desire to live a long life, then the need to exercise is not just important, it is non-negotiable.
Try and exercise more’ has become a familiar statement that patients hear from health professionals in their response to diagnosing a wide range of diseases. Experts often recommend living an active lifestyle for a good reason – the dangers associated with living a sedentary lifestyle are real and can never be overemphasized.
According to World Health Organization, “Sedentary lifestyles increase all causes of mortality, doubles the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity, and increases the risks of colon cancer, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, lipid disorders, depression, and anxiety.”
Study after study reveals the dire consequences of staying put or being at rest for too long without exercise. From disruption of one’s metabolism, colon cancer, and diabetes, it can be confirmed that one’s level of physical activity correlates directly and positively to their chances of longevity. Simply put, your excuses about being too busy to exercise daily may be the death of you.
Sadly, the risks of a sedentary lifestyle do not let up but only get worse; a study conducted using 122,007 patients who were made to undergo exercise treadmill testing revealed that a sedentary lifestyle has worse health implications than smoking, diabetes, and heart disease. In a subsequent interview about the study, Dr Wael Jaber, a renowned cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and a senior author of the study explained some key findings. He said, “Being unfit on a treadmill or in an exercise stress test has a worse prognosis, as far as death, than being hypertensive, diabetic or a current smoker, we’ve never seen something as pronounced as these findings.” The benefits of aerobic exercises to the body are endless and a fit lifestyle directly correlates with longevity.
Researchers have questioned whether ultra-workouts may have some detrimental effects on the body but findings prove otherwise. No level of exercise exposes one to risk. The study further shows that ultra-exercisers still have relatively lower mortality rates. However, people who live sedentary lifestyles have high mortality rates comparable to almost double the risk of people with kidney failure on dialysis.
Whatever health problems you may have, you do yourself no favours by sitting down, you have to get active and the earlier you start, the better for you. The choice is yours to make now, get in your 10,000 steps, use the staircase and not the elevator, get away from your desk from time to time, and walk around the office, or park your car at a distance and walk to the office. To stay motivated, subscribe to a lifestyle change program to get more insight into what you need to do to change your habits, or in the words of A.J Reb Matari, ‘You might end up having to spend your wealth regaining your health’.
You may have thought earlier that how long you live is not wholly dependent on you, but now you know better. If you desire to live a long life, then the need to exercise is not just important, it is non-negotiable.
The (TNYOU) New You Movement
