Exercise improves the quality and duration of sleep as well as the ease of falling asleep. This could be because exercise helps to relax the muscles, or to reduce stress or warm up the body. In the same vein, exercising regularly could reduce the feeling of fatigue in addition to increasing energy levels.
The mechanisms involved are still unknown.
Gallstones
Active women are 30% less likely to undergo surgery for gallstones than sedentary women. Why women? Because they are twice as at risk as men: replacement hormones, birth control pills, excess estrogen good reasons to exercise during pregnancy seem to increase the level of cholesterol in the bile and decrease the movement of the gallbladder, which which increases the risk of gallstone formation.
Cancer
The National Cancer Institute published, in 2006, the results of two prospective studies suggesting that physical activity, practiced on a regular basis in the months following treatment for colorectal cancer, reduced the risk of recurrence and mortality. .
A study published in theAmerican Journal of Epidemiology , in 2008, and performed on 80,000 Japanese for 10 years demonstrated that regular physical activity reduced the risk of cancer of the colon, liver, pancreas and stomach. The protective effect was even more present in people with a healthy weight. Researchers seem to point to the fact that exercise boosts the immune system, the body’s natural defense system, and leads to desirable hormonal changes.
In the Journal of Clinical Oncology(August 2008), one could read that more than a dozen studies carried out during the last 20 years showed that exercise could reduce the risk of breast cancer by up to 40% while other research established that the benefits of exercise were as great if not greater in survivors of this cancer.
Exercise would also help regain strength, eat, sleep and reduce stress; all conditions to be optimized when one wants to fight cancer.
Diverticular diseases
The protective effect against diverticular diseases (mainly hernias of the intestinal mucosa) would be greater with vigorous exercise such as jogging and running than with moderate physical activity such as walking.
Regular moderate exercise may reduce joint swelling and pain in people with arthritis. In the same vein, the practice of physical activity helps maintain a healthy weight and, from there, reduces the risk of suffering from arthritis in the knees.
Anxiety and depression
Exercise may have the effect of releasing natural opiates which may reduce symptoms of anxiety or depression. And still at the brain level, staying physically fit can help offset changes, such as diminished cognitive function, that normally occur with aging.
Heart disease
Exercise increases the oxygen supply to the heart muscle by increasing the expansion of arteries and creating other minivessels. Exercise may also prevent blood clots from forming and/or breaking up. A study carried out at the Montreal Heart Institute in 2008 and following nearly 15 years of 14,000 patients who had already had cardiac procedures, clearly demonstrated that the risk of death was 42% higher in sedentary people. Sedentary people were 1.6 times more likely to die of heart disease than physically active people.
Blood pressure
If blood pressure is already high or normal to high, regular light to moderate exercise can help lower it. If blood pressure is normal, regular exercise can help keep it normal. Studies show that a drop of just 2 to 3 mmHg in blood pressure leads to a 25 to 50% reduction in the risk of developing hypertension.
Diabetes
The more exercise there is, the lower the risk of diabetes, especially if there are other risk factors, such as excess weight, hypertension or a family history of diabetes. On the other hand, in the presence of diabetes, the liver tends to become engorged with fat, which increases the risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer, in addition to disrupting metabolism and increasing blood lipid levels. . And a study carried out at Johns Hopkins Hospital showed that regular physical activity led to a decrease in fat in the liver.
Falls and broken bones
With age, muscle loss is accelerated and with it the loss of the ability to produce reflex movements that prevent us from falling as well as the weakening of posture. Exercise can prevent falls and loss of balance through improved muscle strength, better balance, better gait and better reaction time.
Enlargement of the prostate
It is a fact that occurs with old age, in fact 50% of men over 60 and almost 90% of men over 70 suffer from some symptoms due to prostate cancer. increased prostate size. It seems that regular exercise can reduce the risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia by 25%.