A major trend today is the “anti-aging” trend. Everyone wants to look and feel younger, and extend that prime phase of life. It’s quite understandable; as we live longer, of course we want to be healthier and have more vitality. Who would want to spend 20 or 30 (or even more) years in constant pain, unable to enjoy life? There are so many conditions and diseases that worsen as we age and decrease our quality of life considerably, and most of these that are currently viewed as a normal part of aging are actually highly preventable. The secret to avoiding these “normal” conditions is cardiovascular exercise.
Cardio Vascular System
The cardiovascular system is the most crucial of your body’s systems. Without it, your body wouldn’t be able to function at all, and yet most of us take it for granted until we begin to experience problems. Even when symptoms such as shortness of breath or high blood pressure develop, we are too tempted to write them off until our bodies are in a state of crisis.
Rather than ignore what our most precious system is trying to tell us, we must pay attention to signs and symptoms, and—most importantly—engage in a little prevention.
The cardiovascular system is the system that keeps your body supplied with oxygen. Without oxygen, none of your other systems or organs can function. Your lungs take in oxygen, and this oxygen is pumped around your body by your heart. Your bloodstream carries the oxygen (along with other important things like hormones) all over your body. Your heart is made up of muscle tissue, and just like any other muscle, it becomes weaker with disuse and stronger with exercise.
When other muscles in the body are weak or underdeveloped, it is easy to see, and also easy to correct with weights or other resistance exercises. It is impossible to see if your heart is weak, and unfortunately all too easy to ignore the signs. Even if you realize that your heart needs to be stronger, your heart is an involuntary muscle. You can’t target it the way you can target your biceps, for example. To make your heart work harder, you have only one choice: to get it beating faster by doing cardiovascular exercise.
Many people do cardiovascular exercise with only one intention—to lose weight. Although regular cardio exercise can result in a trimmer waistline and a more attractive body shape, (according to many people, anyway) the benefits you can’t see are also very compelling reasons to exercise.
The sheer number of medical conditions associated with being inactive is overwhelming. Regular cardiovascular exercise has a strong preventative effect which protects from a variety of incurable diseases and conditions, and it can also help to noticeably decrease the severity of symptoms in those already diagnosed. Many people who suffer from such conditions describe themselves as “cured” once they begin a regimen of cardiovascular exercise and their fitness improves.
Asthma
Asthma is an increasingly common respiratory disease. During asthmatic episodes, the airway narrows and the lungs produce too much mucous, making the airway “sticky.” If you have this condition, you know that it can be annoying, but it can also be life-threatening. Cardiovascular exercise improves lung capacity, which reduces the severity of asthma attacks, including exercise-induced ones. Once you begin regular exercise, your lungs will likely produce less mucous, and it will take a greater amount of stress to provoke attacks. If you suffer from asthma, starting an exercise routine can be difficult, so consult your doctor before trying to get all the benefits of cardiovascular exercise.
Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes
There are far too many adults in developed countries suffering from these conditions. Insulin resistance is a vicious cycle. The less your body responds to insulin, the more it produces. The more it produces, the less it responds to it! The result is constant sleepiness and exhaustion, often only relieved by eating large, carbohydrate loaded meals. The problem is, this relief is only temporary, as those meals make your body produce more insulin! When your blood sugar drops again, you will “crash,” feeling more tired than before, and craving even more unhealthy food!
If you have insulin resistance, your body cannot move sugar from your blood into your cells properly, so it gets stored as fat. Without the energy your cells need, you feel tired, and your body prompts you to eat even more! Many complaints commonly associated with age, including muscle and joint pain, exhaustion, and lack of strength or stamina, are really due to some level of insulin resistance robbing your cells of energy. This terrible cycle eventually leads to Type 2 diabetes if it isn’t stopped, and diabetes has a lot of negative consequences, including the possibility of an early death. Bet you’d do just about anything to avoid that, right?
Well, one of the easiest ways you can use up that extra blood sugar before it gets stored as fat is to burn it off with cardiovascular exercise! Taking a brisk walk after a meal will reduce blood sugar, and stop your body from dumping more and more insulin into your bloodstream. As your body produces less insulin over time, it will begin to respond to insulin better. A little bit of well-timed exercise can literally “turn back the clock,” revving up your metabolism and making you feel years younger!
High Blood Pressure
Viewed by many as yet another thing that “just happens with age” high blood pressure is highly preventable. Doctors advise patients to lay off the salty and fatty foods, which of course is excellent advice. Cardiovascular exercise can also reduce blood pressure by making your heart more efficient at pumping blood. Since high blood pressure is a risk factor for heart attacks, you can’t afford to skip your exercise!
Of course cardiovascular exercise also has a host of other benefits, such as reducing stress levels and creating a relaxed, happy mood. Since your body creates endorphins (the hormones that make you feel happy) when you exercise, people who do regular cardiovascular exercise and happier and less stressed. Regular exercise also prevents the loss of bone density, which is especially important for women who need to ward off osteoporosis. In fact, if you exercise regularly, you can have the bone density of a woman 20 years younger, and avoid dangerous broken bones later in life.
Regular cardiovascular exercise literally “turns back the clock” when it comes to the inside of your body. People who exercise regularly can have the metabolism, blood pressure, energy, stamina, and health of people years younger. Although it can be hard to find the time to exercise, we all owe it to ourselves to fit it in somehow.
That makes a lot of sense. Get the blood flowing and the skin will benefit from that, looking more firm and healthier.