Health Benefits of Physical Exercise That May Surprise You

We all probably know that regular physical exercise or activity is good for our health and wellbeing.

This has actually been proven by scientific research. Studies have shown that regular physical exercise is beneficial for reducing the risks and managing chronic diseases including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and osteopenia, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Regular exercise also improves immune health, brain health, mental health and sleep, reduces stress, and supports hormonal balance.

However, there are also some contraindications to physical exercise. For examples, excessive physical exercise can overtax the body and contribute to chronic stress.

Details of research findings are depicted below.

Health Benefits of Physical Exercise

High Blood Pressure, Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease and Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of metabolic disorders that increase the risk of heart disease. These risk factors include large waistline, high blood pressure, hyperglycemia or high blood glucose levels, low levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and high levels of triglycerides.¹

Regular physical exercise has been shown to significantly reduce blood pressure and improve blood glucose level or glycemic control among individuals with high blood pressure, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.²

The general recommendation for blood pressure and/or glycemic management is physical exercise of moderate to high intensity for at least 30 minutes, over multiple days per week, with the target of 150 minutes of exercise per week. Both aerobic exercise and resistance training are beneficial.²

In addition, obesity is a major risk factor of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Physical exercise as part of a weight management regimen can improve blood pressure and blood glucose level management.³^–⁵

Physical exercise not only can reduce the risk of developing heart disease, but can also be used as therapeutic modality for heart disease patients. Moderate continuous aerobic training is considered efficient and well tolerate by heart disease patients.⁶

Immune Health

Adequate physical exercise was found to be beneficial for immune functions and reduce susceptibility to viral and bacterial infections. On the other hand, a long-term sedentary lifestyle has deleterious immunological and inflammatory effects.⁷

Exercise exerts both short-term and long-term accumulative effects on immune functions in a “dose” dependent manner.⁷

Short-term and regular moderate-intensity exercise exerts positive effects on immune functions However, interesting, studies showed that short-term and regular long-duration high-intensity exercise is associated with compromised immunity.⁷

In addition, some limited evidence showed that exercise might prevent and/or delay age-associated decline of the immune system.⁷

Hormonal Balance

There are many contributing factors to hormonal imbalance. See more details in “Female Hormonal Health – The Fine Balance”

Physical exercise can help to mitigate some of the contributing factors to hormonal imbalance, by reducing stress, support weight management, reducing chronic inflammation, and improving lymphatic circulation and transport of hormones and clearance of excess of hormones.⁵^,⁸^,⁹^,¹⁴

Bone Health

For both men and women, the body attains peak bone mass or bone mineral density (BMD) at around the age of 30. BMD starts to decrease gradually at around age 40. Greater loss of BMD occurs after menopause (for women) or andropause (for men).¹⁰

Lack of physical exercise is one of the risk factors of developing osteoporosis and osteopenia.¹⁰

Adequate exercise, especially weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercise helps to promote increase of bone mass prior to age 30 and slow the decline of BMD after age 30.¹⁰^,¹¹

Weight-bearing exercises are activities that make you move against gravity while still staying upright, such as dancing, brisk walk, hiking, jogging or running, racket and ball games, etc.¹¹

Muscle-strengthening exercises or resistance training are those exercises that help to build muscle strength by resisting weight (own body weight or external weight) against gravity. Examples include lifting weights or using exercise bands, strength training movements and postures in yoga, Pilates, and other movement exercises, etc.¹¹

Brain Health, Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Studies have shown that exercise improves blood flow to the brain, increase brain volume in the hippocampal area, and improve generation of new neurons (or neurogenesis).¹²

Exercise can improve cognitive function at various life stages and reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline including Alzheimer’s disease as well as improving cognitive function, reducing neuropsychiatric symptoms and slowing the decline of activities of daily living (ADL) among Alzheimer’s disease patients.¹²^,¹³

The cognitive function benefits of physical exercise have been observed to be immediate or transient right after an acute bout of exercise as well as cumulative over time with regular physical exercise.¹³

Some studies showed that moderate intensity exercise for a duration of 45 minutes or longer exerted more beneficial effects than light or high intensity exercise at a shorter duration.¹³

Cancer

Studies have shown that a physically active lifestyle can reduce the risk of developing colon cancer, breast cancer, endometrial cancer and prostate cancer, as well as reducing the mortality rate among individuals diagnosed with breast cancer or colon cancer.¹⁶

Physical exercise during and after cancer treatment can improve quality of life and reduce fatigue among cancer patients.¹⁶

Stress Management

Chronic stress results in dysregulation of cortisol (the primary stress hormone secreted by the adrenal glands) and contributes to a wide range of health conditions. See more details in “Why Stress is the Culprit”

Physical exercise is a good relaxation technique for stress management. Adequate exercise promotes cathartic release of stress and exerts parasympathetic rebound effects (related to relaxation, digestion, regeneration of the body) post exercise.¹⁴^,¹⁵

However, the level of exercise intensity matters. Low-intensity exercise lowers cortisol level (thus promoting relaxation), while moderate- to high-intensity exercise elevates cortisol level (thus promoting stress response).¹⁵

Mental Health

Physical exercise has been shown to improve mood, and reduce anxiety, depression and other symptoms of mental disorders.¹⁶

Sleep

Studies have shown that physical exercise can improve sleep quality, sleep latency and reduce the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.¹⁷

Contraindications of Physical Exercise

Although physical exercise can improve health, there are some contraindications where certain exercise or levels of exercise intensity may not be appropriate.

Excessive physical exercise can overtax the body and contribute to chronic stress. Moderate to high intensity exercise is counter-productive to people with late-stage cortisol dysregulation where cortisol is depleted (i.e., the so-called adrenal fatigue).¹⁴^,¹⁵

Long duration of high intensity exercise, either short-term or on regular basis, can be detrimental to immune health.⁷

One should always gauge his/her fitness level and health conditions when choosing the form and intensity of exercise. Certain exercise may not be appropriate for individuals with specific health conditions.

For examples, for individuals with osteoporosis or osteopenia, because the bones may be weakened, high-impact exercise should be avoided. When choosing weight-bearing exercises, low-impact exercises such as using elliptical training machines and stair-step machines, and brisk walking instead of running are preferred.¹⁰^,¹¹

Although physical exercise can be an effective therapeutic modality for heart disease patients, it is important not to exceed the prescribed exercise intensity based on individual’s cardiopulmonary conditions.⁶

How Much Exercise is Good and What Form?

Based on findings from scientific research, physical exercise is definitely not the longer or the higher the intensity, the better.

When health conditions permit, performing moderate-intensity aerobic exercise for 30 minutes or longer a day, over multiple days per week, with the target of at least 150 minutes of exercise per week, seems to be relatively safe while providing overall health benefits. When high-intensity exercise is performed, prolonged duration bout should be avoided.¹⁸

An all-rounded exercise regimen should cover different forms of exercises (including aerobic exercises, strength or resistance training, flexibility training, balance exercises, and posture exercises) to improve health, reduce risk of fall and injury, and reduce risk of age-related postural stoop, mobility decline and debility.¹⁹

Embrace the Nature … It is Good for You!

Female Hormonal Health – The Fine Balance

Why Stress is the Culprit

References

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