Physically active Lifestyles🤸 for the family - How and why (3-minute read)

Leading an active life ⛹️has more benefits than we actually realized. We most often think of exercising just to lose weight, but it is very important to see physical activity and exercise as an important investment in preventing chronic diseases. Physical activity can be described as any muscular contraction that allows a certain amount of energy to be expended beyond a baseline. This definitely includes standing🧍 rather than sitting🧑‍💻, as the former requires continual muscle contraction for balance to be maintained. If you have been inactive for some time, it is good to know that health benefits including lowering of chronic disease risk can start within a day to weeks. Not only this, but there is no such thing as a minimum period of exercise anymore, every single second to minute of physical activity or exercise is giving you some health benefits. 

  

A common danger globally is inactivity. Inactivity has been cited and studied as an independent risk factor for both increased chronic disease and mortality rates. Approximately 66% of adults in the U.S.A. are not getting sufficient levels of activity🛌. It is also important to note that even if you are exercising or being physically active in your leisure time, sedentary behavior for other parts of the day is just as dangerous. Examples of this include sitting in front of Television📺 or long periods of sitting down at home or in the office at work. 

  

I have made a short list of benefits that can be derived from being more physically active: 

1. Treatment and management of chronic pain; 

2. Your sleep quality can improve significantly; 

3. You can choose activity to increase your muscle strength, stamina level, aerobic function, balance and flexibility; 

4. Reduce your risk of dementia; 

5. Allow more weight loss; 

6. Better bone health💪; 

7. Reduced risk of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease (examples include stroke and heart attack) and mortality; 

8. Allow better lower limb function, including blood vessel health and nervous system health;  

9. Decrease stress, anxiety, and depression🧘; 

10. Reduce adipose tissue (fat) in the body; 

11. Incidence levels lower for cancer including breast, prostate, bladder, kidney, stomach, endometrium, esophagus and colon; 

12. Fall reduction in senior members of the community🧓🧑‍🦳;  

13. Fall injury levels in seniors is reduced; 

14. Lowered risk during pregnancy of weight gain, gestational diabetes and post-natal depression. 

 

Note that physical function improvements have been researched in children👶 as young as three to five years old. In fact, early onset of cardiovascular disease is now being shown in children presenting to the family doctor from 8 years old. Good activity levels 🤸🤾should be encouraged in young children.  
 
Children under six should be active throughout the day, with guidelines recommending from 6–17-year-olds doing 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity. From 18-64 years old 150 minutes per week of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity.  Clearance from your family doctor🧑‍⚕️ or medical specialist must take place whenever there are any illnesses, operations, medical conditions or broken bones or injuries present. Examples would include the presence of Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. The subject discussed here are recommendations but not prescriptions for exercise or activity. 
 
Benefits of reducing cardiovascular disease can take place with as little as 15 minutes per day or 90 minutes per week of moderate exercise. I recommend keeping a journal🧾 of your activity levels, and the way you felt about exercising on that day. I also recommend not totally relying on exercise or activity to reduce your weight. Weight loss is better and more safely achieved through combining calorie reduction and nutrition selection, or exclusion of high-density foods containing excessive saturated fat, sugar and salt. However, it is also good to remember that activity is a very important part of maintaining any weight reduction that you may have already achieved. Very often in dieting some people feel a sense of failure if they lose weight and then quickly put it back on again. Often weight gain is accompanied by no change in activity or exercise presence. As weight control is a very complex subject, it is only briefly referred to in the scope of this discussion.  
 
Lifestyle medicine intervention can be very important in the presence of managing chronic disease in patients with a disability. Some examples of disabilities include:  
  

• Intellectual disability 

• Dementia 

• Muscular dystrophy 

• Traumatic brain injury 

• Mental illness 

• Spinal cord injury and stroke 

• Multiple sclerosis 

• Parkinsons disease 

• Cerebral palsy  

• Limb amputations 

• Huntingtons chorea 

 

I have personally been involved in the implementation and management of physical activity and exercise programs as part of my Lifestyle medicine management for my patients who have the above disabilities🧑‍🦽 and seen and analyzed the outcomes of the quality-of-life improvements and mood changes in these patients. The recommendations for physical activity and exercise in the presence of disability are quite similar to those without disability, so long as the person is working within the scope of their capabilities, physical conditions and realistic expectations. (Things that apply to the whole population). 
 
Bearing in mind that they can and must be carefully assessed by a suitably qualified practitioner🧑‍⚕️ experienced in these areas of patient management. The exercise and physical activity must be safely carried out and supervised where required, for maximum effectiveness of the activity or exercise prescription.  Don’t underestimate the value of walking🚶, by limiting the amount of time, increasing/decreasing the intervals, and decreasing the intensity under guidance in the above context, especially when pain is present. Swimming🏊 and cycling🚴 are good options if you are having pain from weight bearing too. 
 
So, in summary I recommend that activity becomes a powerful pillar in your vision for a good Lifestyle🌿. Exercise should and must be part of reducing the incidence of chronic disease in our life, and there is no age restriction on the benefits. Senior members🧓 of our community will be happy to know that well planned strength training can achieve excellent results and changes to health and longevity🧧 and can be carried out well into the nineties or centenary years of our age. Strength training is often regularly left out of activity planning but can show very good improvements in health when carefully planned and supervised. 
 
If you have any difficulty in selecting your requirements for activity, an appointment with a suitable trained practitioner is of great value. If you would like to read more on this subject, you may like to read my book “Lets learn about Power of Activity” available on Amazon Books📚. See the link below: 
 
https://www.amazon.com.au/Lets-Learn-about-Power-Activity-ebook/dp/B018LK7RTW/ref=sr_1_3?crid=29CAXN90A1YKM&keywords=let%27s+learn+about+power+of+Activities&qid=1682508292&s=books&sprefix=let%27s+learn+about+power+of+activities%2Cstripbooks%2C302&sr=1-3 
 
  
 
Have a lovely day and happy Active every day!