Lifestyle vs Mortality

Why Do you Exercise?

Do you get called a ‘weirdo’ for getting up at 6 am for a run? Perhaps you have an unsupportive partner who questions the time you spend at the gym, choosing dumbbells over a night in with a chinese in front of the telly. Do your friends roll their eyes if you opt for a salad over steak? Tell them to BACK OFF.

The Facts

Keeping fit is a lifestyle choice. Personally, I want to have a long and prosperous life. As long and as healthy as possible. Now I can’t stop myself getting run over by a bus tomorrow- but there are other things that I can do to lower the risks of an early grave.

Consider natural disasters, poverty and famine where people lose their precious lives in the most unfair situation. How can we possibly put our own lives at risk with self inflicted poor health?

Depending on your religious views we each have one life and one body. Two main killers or causes of a shorter lifespan are Cardiovascular Diseases and Type 2 Diabetes. There are certain risk factors associated with each that you control, meaning  the way you live your lifestyle directly impacts your vulnerability to these diseases.

Dad – do you want to live to see your kids grow up or do you want a third pork pie?

Poor diet and low activity levels put you at a higher risk. The National Health Service recommends 20 mins of moderate exercise a day to combat this – what’s moderately walking to the fridge and back going to cure really? These are half hearted attempts to alert the public of the dangers of inactive lifestyles.

In 2006 in the UK a poll of 350,000 people showed that less than half did any activity or exercise. Even worse, 95% of the UK do not manage to achieve the recommended 20 mins of fridge hopping moderate activity per day. Scary.

Don’t just join a gym – join the longer life club.

I’m not just talking about fatties here. Being underweight is just as unhealthy. You can have a skinny person with ridiculously high cholesterol levels just as susceptible to a heart attack as someone who is morbidly obese.

Drugs

Never mind being off your tits on LSD. The UK health service has royally fucked this one.  For example, you have a young girl who is overweight. She goes to her doctor to tell him she is unhappy. Does he prescribe her a healthy dose of exercise and provide sensible dietary advice? Or does he make the drugs companies happy by dosing out Prozac by the sackful.

Sadly in many cases it is the latter.

The same goes for lowering cholesterol, blood pressure even diet pills that actually make you shit yourself if you eat fatty foods. Has modern society really been reduced to considering adult nappies rather than good old fashioned self control.

E is for Endorphins

Why is fitness important?

Believe it or not, some people actually enjoy exercise. For me going for a long run is therapeutic, it helps me clear my head, plan my day, it fills me with a sense of achievement and the endorphins I get are a natural high that sets me up for the day.  I feel good knowing I am doing good for my body – maintaining a high level of fitness and increasing my lifespan.

One of the important benefits of exercise is to lower both resting and exercise heart rate. Recent studies show that a lower resting heart has a direct impact on morbidity and mortality. There is now scientific proof that having a low resting heart rate, and subsequently a lower diastolic blood pressure, actually reduces the strain / damage to blood vessels  surrounding the heart due to relatively prolonging diastolic blood flow (flow in the circulation as the heart relaxes) versus systolic flow which is more turbulent. The calmer flow means less risk of damaging plaque and causing a heart attack or stroke. And what are the experts prescribing – a fucking pill.

Value your life – train hard and eat clean.

Carrots?

I’m not saying you have to live like a saint. I don’t exist on a diet of raw carrots. I enjoy the occasional drink – I just don’t have a pint with every meal . Moderation is key. If you lead a healthy lifestyle 80% of the time you can afford to relax 20 % of the time. The road to a healthier lifestyle especially with regard to weight loss is a longer process but once you are there you can afford to relax a bit more.

I work out.

Exercising is not just about vanity and looking good in lycra. It’s about bettering your quality of life. If getting off your arse means you get to live a longer life on earth then get moving.