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For many people the arrival of winter weather is often associated with an immediate reduction in their levels of physical activity. Despite our inclination to hibernate through the cold months, this is a trend that has to be reversed because regular exercise is one of the very best ways to prevent disease.
The British epidemiologist Jeremy Morris was the first person to demonstrate the link between physical activity and cardiovascular health. Morris, who died last month at age 99, compared the rate of heart disease in drivers and ticket inspectors on London’s double-decker buses. His work, published in 1953, was able to show that the risk of heart disease for ticket agents, who regularly had to climb nearly 600 stairs during their workday, was less than half that of their driver colleagues who stayed in their seats 90% of the time.
The same phenomenon was found with in the British postal service, where letter carriers who delivered the mail on foot or by bicycle had many fewer incidents of heart disease than employees who worked behind the counter. Overall, Morris proved beyond a doubt that inactive people had more than double the rate of heart disease (such as heart attacks) as their physically active counterparts. The researcher was able to put his observations into practice by staying active until the ripe old age of 95.
The positive impact of exercise on the heart is due to a series of physiological and metabolic adjustments in the pulmonary, muscular and cardiovascular systems that together improve the oxygen consumption and energy production.
Combined with a decrease in tension in the arteries, an improvement in the amount of blood lipids as well as better elasticity in the blood vessels, exercise really is an all-in-one medicine that targets several processes that are essential to maintaining cardiovascular health. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg for the benefits of exercise. As soon as you dig a little into the most recent discoveries in the field, the list of benefits grows exponentially. Some of these include:
Lower blood sugar and diabetes prevention; increase in bone mass and osteoporosis prevention; increase in the brain’s metabolism and neurodegenerative diseases; reduced rate of several types of cancer and increased survival rate after treatments; lower stress, improvement in sleep and immune system protection; improvement in self-confidence and improvement in sexual performance.
Together, the current data suggests that regular physical activity, even light activity such as 30 minutes of brisk walking, cuts the risk of premature death by half while greatly increasing quality of life. With that in mind, make sure you don’t let the winter months deprive you of this universal medicine.
ANTICANCER RECIPE
Kachumber salad with lime juice
Kachumber is the most common salad in India. This hors d’oeuvre is especially delicious with Indian-style cucumber sauce.
2 red tomatoes
1 cucumber
1/2 Spanish onion
Juice from 1 lime, freshly squeezed
Salt and pepper, ground
1 Tbsp. (15 ml) hot red peppers, cut into sections (if desired)
Fresh cilantro or flat parsley, finely chopped (if desired)
Cut the tomatoes into 1/2-inch (1 cm) pieces, which will make about 16 pieces. Remove seeds from the tomatoes.
Cut the cucumber lengthwise into four pieces, remove the seeds and cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces.
Cut the onion into 1/2-inch (1 cm) pieces.
Mix the tomatoes, cucumber and onions together in a bowl. Add the lime juice and salt and pepper to taste.
Add the hot peppers and the cilantro at the end.
Serves 4.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy