You already know that exercise is good for you, but new research shows that regular cardiovascular activities may add years to your life.
Researchers in Australia found that people over 45 who frequently exercised vigorously enough to break a sweat and become winded, increased their heart rate and were up to 13% less likely to die prematurely. As a result of the findings, the researchers would encourage doctors to recommend those patients who are able to engage in regular cardiovascular activities. The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine online on April 6.
In this study, researchers followed more than 204,000 individuals who were between 45 and 75 years of age for more than 8 years, from February 1, 2006, through June 15, 2014. They divided study participants into three groups based on intensity of exercise. One group did not engage in vigorous cardiovascular activities, a second group reported less than 30% of their exercise as being vigorous, while a third group reported more than 30% of the exercise they engaged in was vigorous.
By the end of the study, those who reported more than 30% of their exercise vigorous were 13% less likely to die early than those who did not engage in vigorous activity, while those who reported less than 30% of their exercise as vigorous were 9% less likely to die early.
According to senior research fellow Dr. Klaus Gebel of the James Cook University Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention in Cairns, everyone, regardless of gender, age, or the total amount of time spent exercising, saw the benefits of vigorous exercise. Even among those who were obese, had heart disease, or diabetes mellitus, and were able to manage at least a little bit of vigorous activity, still benefited from doing so.
Current recommendations are that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week, with a rule of thumb that a minute of vigorous activity is the equivalent of two minutes of moderate activity, though this may be an oversimplification.
Physical exercise has a number of benefits besides adding years to your life. These include: maintaining healthy weight, reducing risk of depression, improving cognition, improving lung function, and reducing your risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, cancer, among other diseases.
Older adults, as well as those who are generally sedentary and those who have any medical condition should consult with a doctor before engaging in a new exercise regimen.
We have the unfortunate privilege of helping many peak athletes with Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome that seek our nutritional coaching to restore their vitality. Peak athletes need optimized energy flow within the body 24/7. Fatigue in moderation can be tolerated for a short time from occasional overtraining. The push for better performance does take its toll if not properly titrated to the body’s capacity. Physical training at the world class level requires a body with ample nutritional reserve at all times to supply the needed energy on demand. There is no tolerance for extreme fatigue which requires physical rest and thus downtime from training. Yet we have seen firsthand that causes of extreme fatigue can include overtraining and overexertion. Among young athletes or weekend warriors, excessive exercise is a common trigger for adrenal crash if there are already underlying weaknesses. When crashes occur, they are often incapacitated for days and sometimes weeks. Many have to end their profession athlete career, and that can be very devastating. Remember that exercise is good, but overexercise is bad, especially if you have Adrenal Fatigue. Intense exercise triggers the release of epinephrine, a powerful hormone that can trigger adrenal crashes. For optimum healing, we have developed different levels of custom designed exercise intensities that are helpful even for those who are bedridden. They include adrenal restorative exercise, adrenal circulation exercises, a 21-session series of adrenal yoga exercises to gently rebuild the core and nurture the body back to good health and prevent premature death.
The balance between fatigue, overtraining, and hormones is an emerging field known as functional medicine. Functional medicine observes the body as a whole, and looks at all systems in the body, especially as they function within the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress ResponseSM. As the name suggests, this response includes all systems associated with our neurologic network, endocrine and hormone response, and metabolic from nutrient uptake to detoxification. When designing an exercise plan and addressing fatigue, it is important to explore the body as a whole. While approaching exercise for adrenal fatigue recovery, or addressing issues of overtraining, it is important that all systems of the body are addressed and balanced.
