Regular exercise protects against illness
Regular exercise: 3000 steps more a day
Exercise is the best way to delay the biological aging process? even if you start at 50 with it. This has been shown again in a recent study by the Manchester Metropolitan University. At this age, light sports have a more positive effect than overly hard training. Most effects occur when around 1000 kilocalories are burned each week. For this it is enough to walk 30 minutes several times a week, do some gardening, climb stairs more often or go dancing. Muscle loss is arrested, the heart muscle strengthened. The cholesterol level can already significantly lower 3000 steps per day, according to a study by the Center for Health of the German Sport University Cologne. Breast and colon cancer can also be counteracted.
Even women who embark on walking or cycling after menopause can reduce their risk of breast cancer by 20 percent. Important: regular training, preferably five days a week. To gain momentum, Dr. Edward Michael Phillips, sports physician and director of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, a longtime sports mum: "Walking around on the phone instead of sitting down, putting the remote away from the TV, earning a pedometer and every day the track The goal should be to create 3,000 in the long run, but 10,000 in the long run. "
Regular exercise protects the bones
Lack of physical activity is the biggest risk factor for osteoporosis.
Bones need exercise. Only when the muscles regularly attract or pressure them, the bones are stimulated to store calcium from the food and thus provide stability. Lack of physical activity is therefore the biggest risk factor for the development of osteoporosis. Therefore, anyone who wants to prevent this bone disease should not only be fed on calcium, but also set in motion specifically, advises Professor Dr. med. Reiner Bartl, director of the Bavarian Osteoporosis Center in Munich: "You can do a great deal to keep your bones strong and stable into old age."
However, to achieve truly long-term success, coordinated training that combines strength, stretching and balance exercises after warming up is important. Such a program contains the new "movement coach" -DVD (49 minutes, available in pharmacies or at www.calcium-sandoz.de for 6.95 euros including shipping costs).
Regular exercise: dancing keeps you young
Gliding across the floor in waltz time or turning to salsa rhythms will not only boost your body, but your brain as well. Because the learning of step sequences and the rhythmic movement to music stimulate the cells in the brain. Dancers are? even at a higher age? mentally fitter and have much better responsiveness and fine motor skills than non-dancers of the same age.
As a study at the Ruhr University Bochum has shown, regular dancing promotes several areas in the brain, which otherwise wither away with the years. "The majority of age-related deterioration is due to the fact that people are no longer sufficiently moved," says Professor Hubert Dinse, neurologist and head of the Institute of Neuroinformatics. "Dancing is a good way to boost performance at any age."
Regular exercise: Gentle stimulation for healthy bones
What do astronauts in space and people beyond mid-life have in common? Both lose muscle strength and bone mass. The reason: Tiny muscle fibers? the basic elements of our musculature? sparks less growth impulses to the bones over the years, in weightlessness these stimuli are completely absent. So far, it was believed that only high forces, such as those when climbing stairs or strength training, build up the bones again. But Professor Clinton Rubin of Stony Brook State University New York found that the subtle stimuli that these muscle fibers release when contracting are sufficient.
Supported by NASA's Nasa, Rubin developed a vibration platform that mimics such light muscle stimuli. The forces that act on the body, are significantly lower than those on common Rüttelbrettern in gyms, the weaken porous bone even more. In contrast, 20 minutes of mini-pulse shake-through per day, as shown by a double-blind study, can make the vertebral bodies seven percent per year and the femoral neck more stable by almost two percent.If the initial cost of 2950 euros are too high, the device can be used by some physiotherapists and doctors for a fee. Information on hotline 08 00/334 41 23 or www.juvent.de.
Regular exercise: Yoga-Walking strengthens body and soul
Our breath affects every cell of our body. If we use it purposefully, we gain peace and serenity, energy and vitality. Physical complaints are alleviated. This realization uses Breathwalk (breath = breathe, walk = go). The US-based dynamic exercise program draws attention to the breath while walking and combines the steps with breathing patterns, yoga, meditation and finger exercises (mudras).
The effect depends on how inhalation and exhalation are directed. "For example, if you inhale for four paces and take four paces, you will find peace and inner balance," says Hanka Sat Want Kaur, Breathwalk organizer for Germany. A bit getting used to, an introduction under guidance is therefore recommended. "But when exercises and rhythm are first internalized, the success is quickly felt," said the Hamburg yoga teacher. Information and courses at www.breath walk.de. Instructions also in the book "Breathwalk step by step" by Hanka S.W. Kaur and Gurucharan Singh Khalsa (192 p., 19.95 euros, VAK-Verlag 2008).
Regular exercise: Never again a cigarette!
The will to quit smoking is usually high. But when the craving for nicotine becomes too strong, many will relapse. It is often not that difficult to overcome annoying withdrawal symptoms: As experiments have shown at the University of Exeter, helps exercise.
Thus, the withdrawal from smoking is almost a walk.
Just a quick walk can distract your body, and within ten minutes you'll feel the need to smoke. If you can not go outside, the head of the study recommends. Adrian Taylor, instead, isometric exercises that gently tense and relax the body. For example, you can put the palms together in front of the chest, build up pressure for five to ten seconds and then release with the exhale. Repeat this process five to ten times, and the craving for a cigarette is gone.
The English health scientists themselves are very excited about how effective these simple remedies are. "This is how quitting smoking becomes a walk," says Taylor. "If we could find a drug with a similar effect, it could be marketed immediately."
