Exercise is more help than you think
A recent study indicates that regular exercise by young women can reduce their risk of aggressive breast cancer. I'd like you to see what other benefits beyond weight loss exist. But I encourage you to only include information that mentions scientific research. Not all scientific research is well done, but it's a good start when you are evaluating the claims of some change in lifestyle. Provide us the link to your information, and tell us if you think the research is convincing.
24 comments:
Suprisingly one way to prevent breast cancer is to get an MRI scan. When i found this article i couldn't believe that getting an MRI scan can detect breast cancer at its earliest stage and it can even prevent breast cancer. German studies have shown that these MRI scans can be more beneficial to women in detecting/preventing breast cancer than mammograms. Though, according to the American Cancer Society, it may be to early to start using MRI scans as routine breast cancer detection or prevention. Why i believe this research is convincing is because
the MRI can detect DCIS, which is a nonmalignant tumor that causes breast cancer, which will give surgeons time to remove the leison before it becomes cancerous.
The website for this finding is: http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/new_research/20070810.jsp
As I was looking up different ways for women to reduce their risk of breast cancer and I came upon the common idea, excersizing more and eating healthier. But the one that interested me the most was consumption of alcohol.
There was a study done in the UK where it was found that "there was an increase in risk of breast cancer with the amount of alcohol that women regularly drink. With each additional daily measure - a glass of wine for example - there is an increase in risk of breast cancer of about 7%. This means that there will be about 3 extra cases of breast cancer for every 200 women who have 2 drinks a day, when compared to women who don't drink at all" (Definite Breast Cancer Risks).
According to MedHeadlines, "Laboratory studies have proven that alcohol affects estrogen metabolism in such a way that it acts as fuel for a form of cancer that is hormone sensitive." This means basically that the more alcohol a women consumes the more of an increase the women faces with getting breast cancer.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/436104/ways_to_reduce_the_chances_of_breast.html?page=2
http://medheadlines.com/2008/04/14/alcohol-may-increase-breast-cancer-risk/
Another recent study was published on the American Heart Association’s website that found physical exercise helps with heart disease. Specifically the research states how small, regular doses of physical activity helped overweight and sedentary women through an improvement in their levels of cardio respiratory fitness.
The research states how low levels of cardio respiratory fitness are linked to cardiovascular disease, because the less fit one is, in regards to the heart & lungs, the more at risk the individuals is to heart disease, which can be mortal. Therefore the research was conducted on 464 women between the ages of 47 and 75. The women selected fit the following criteria: “less than 20 minutes [of exercise] fewer than three days a week and taking less than 8,000 steps a day—were selected for the study. All of the women had a body mass index of between 25 and 43, which put them in the categories of overweight to obese, and had normal to high systolic blood pressure.”
The women were divided into different groups according to their need, and assigned an exercise program which consisted of 3-4 training sessions a week for 6 months. “Fitness was measured in terms of the amount of oxygen consumed and the amount of power they generated through their exercise.” The results showed that even a small increase in the amount of regular physical activity showed an improvement in their oxygen intake, and their ability of their hearts to pump blood.
Source:http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3048393
I posted above, and I feel that this research is convincing. It is necessary for one to exercise their body, in order to live healthily and reduce the risk of diseases that can be prevented.
It's weird that people didn't think about this before because it's a simple concept. There is no harm in exercise and it's good to see a lot of research done to see find the benefits. Surprisingly, the article states that the women with the lowest risk only did around 3 hours and 15 minutes of vigorous activities. If one thinks about it, that is a very low number compared to the amount of days in a week. Nonetheless, good for science for finding new benefits. Now to spark some minds...
It seems that exercise during pregnancy not only helps the mother but the baby as well. Studies have shown that babies have a lower heart rate if their mothers partake in at least 30 minutes of exercise. The article states that the exercise benefits the autonomic nervous system regulation. There was another article today that states that women who are stressed can lead to babies to have allergies and asthma (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24696127/). Since exercise is known to help lower stress, there is no harm to this recommended daily activity.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23997584/
Although performing a self-check breast exam won't reduce the risks of breast cancer, it will help women detect it at its earliest stages. The earlier breast cancer is detected, the less aggressive and painful the treatment will be. I feel that this research is convincing because I've known someone who did these breast checks on herself and she found that she had breast cancer and was able to treat it while it was in its early stages.
http://cancer.about.com/od/breastcancer/tp/preventbreast.htm
There are many benefits that come along with excercise. Many of them are physical traits like the breat cancer example provided in the original post. But some benefits of excercise are also psychological. Excercise can boost a person's self esteem as well. It can also help you focus better on things you have to do.
"Increased Self-Esteem: Gaining control of your body size and weight through fitness is an amazing way to increase self-esteem. You look better and are more confident which empowers you in everything you do. You will find that the self-discipline required and learned through regular exercise spills over into other areas of your life and you will be better able to make other necessary and desireable changes."
"Increase Mental Focus: Did you know that the latest research shows that exercise helps keep the brain sharp well into old age? Anything that involves mental acuity (focus and concentration) is improved. You also stand a much better chance of avoiding such diseases as Alzheimer's and senility."
Excercise has many benefits that are great for the body. This link provides 10 benefits of excercise:
http://www.busywomensfitness.com/exercise-benefits.html
Exercise is important to many things other than weight loss. Exercise not only helps your health but also your mental health. Exercise can help improve your mood because when you exercise various brain chemicals are stimulated which leaves you feeling relaxed even when you just take a 30 minute walk. Also, by exercising you are improving your body image which can also boost your confidence and self- esteem. Exercise is a very good tool to reduce high blood pressure and prevent heart disease. By regularly exercising you are boosting you high density lipoprotein which is good for the body and decreasing low- density lipoprotein which is bad cholesterol. Exercise also makes your heart and lungs stronger by delivering oxygen and nutrients to the tissues. With a smoother blood flow in the heart, you are able to do more things because you have a lot more energy. Many people who have trouble falling asleep lack adequate exercise. Exercise helps people fall asleep faster and get better sleep which helps with concentration and mood the following day. This information is convincing because it comes from Mayo Clinic which is one of the top medical facilities in the world. Also, many of the above stated I have experienced my self. For example, I usually do get very good sleep after working out.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise/HQ01676
Exercise not only helps to maintain a healthy weight, but it also makes other healthy contributions to the body. One of those contributions is to promote healthy blood sugar levels to prevent or control diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes mellitus is characterized by loss of the insulin-producing beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, leading to a deficiency of insulin. The main cause of this beta cell loss is a T-cell mediated autoimmune attack.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder that is primarily characterized by insulin resistance, relative insulin deficiency and hyperglycemia. It is often managed by engaging exercise and modifying one’s diet.
Studies have shown that an increase in anabolic exercise accompanied with proper nutrition will help restore glucose metabolism by decreasing body fat. Strength training can also decrease body fat be increasing metabolism. The main benefit of exercise in terms of diabetes is increasing glucose intake by the muscles and enhancing the ability to store glucose. Exercise is mainly for Type 2 diabetes, but is not as helpful for Type 1.
http://www.simplefitnesssolutions.com/articles/diabetes.htm
It's no surprise that exercise is being linked to breast cancer prevention. Regular exercise is considered as a preventative lifestyle choice for several diseases and disorders.
Regular exercise is now being considered as a way to prevent Parkinson's disease.
A study following the lives of 143,300 men and women in America over a span of 9 years, has shown people who exercise regularly may reduce their risk of developing Parkinson's disease. The amount and intensity of the exercise did make a difference, though. The study showed that only those who were involved in moderate to vigorous activity, significantly reduced their risk.
The drop in Parkinson's risk has only been shown in individuals who were doing upwards of 5-6 hours of aerobic exercise(or 3-4 hours of swimming) a week .
These individuals were 40% less likely to have Parkinson's than those who had zero or light physical activity every week.
Check it out:
http://www.webmd.com/parkinsons-disease/news/20070423/exercise-may-help-prevent-parkinsons
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise/HQ01676
Exercising is good all around. In addition to the benefits of exercising that everyone else mentioned above, another benefit is that of better sleep.
Studies show that exercise help you sleep better. Just be sure not to exercise too close to your bedtime because it may keep you awake. Experts say you should allow yourself about three hours between exercise and going to bed. Save the high-impact aerobics for the a.m., mid-day or early afternoon.
"Sleep is brought on by chemicals released in your body. These chemicals are a by-product of your body burning sugar for fuel during the day. The more sugar you burn (the more active you are) the more of these chemicals are released, helping you sleep better and deeper. However, some people find exercise stimulating and have trouble sleeping if they exercise too late in the day, so time your exercise for maximum benefits."
So for those of you who don't get quality sleep, try exercising! It's a win/win situation!
For the comment above, the link is http://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongfitness/f/exercisesleep.htm
According to the Mayo Clinic, as little as 10-15 minutes of exercise per day can help with those under depression and anxiety.
Not much information is known about the reason why, but scientists suspect that the reason is due to the brain releasing endorphins, the body relieving muscle tension, the reduction of the stress hormone cortisol, and the result of better sleep.
Furthermore, I suppose that if the depression and anxiety comes from being overweight, regular exercise would definitely help with that.
However, if the depression and anxiety stems from some other source such as an eating disorder, exercise will definitely not cure it. One should go to a psychiatrist to seek proper help.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/depression-and-exercise/MH00043
On the Autism Research Institute's website, I read that exercise happens to be one of the best, though definitely under utilized form of treatment for autistic individuals. One subject even stated that exercise was able to calm her down and help her to sleep easier through the night. On another website, "autism today", Daniel Hawthorne's article "On Autism and Exercise" he stated that the reason aerobic exercise is so beneficial is because it sends more oxygen to the most important part of the body, the brain. He also stated that physical exercise helps with the development of new nerves in the hippo-campus of the brain. Thus, an efficient brain minimizes stereotypical characteristics and helps to cope with sensory difficulties.
Observing consistent information amongst these websites, I do find this argument convincing and inspiring as well. With the help of to what ive learned from this class so far, I feel that it is credible.
http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/autism_excercise.htm
I have found out that vitamin D can help prevent breast cancer and those already diagnosed with breast cancer can consume vitamin D supplements to prevent the spread of the cancer and are not mostly likely to die. But then the article also mentions that too much of this nutrient is harmful to the cancer as well! It's surprising because I didn't know that taking too much of something that's suppose to be good for you can be so detrimental. Even though vitamin D can prevent and help in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and even the flu, studies show that and excessive amount of vitamin D in the bloodstream is bad for cancer patients and can even heighten the disease. I think this fact should be publicized more because people might take an excessive amount thinking that it will help them and their disease when in fact it can really hurt and damage these patients even more.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=517833
http://www.jcrjournal.com/pt/re/jcardiorehab/fulltext.00008483-200001000-00014.htm;jsessionid=LxcWVSHzZ7FN0mLLGYvtphMMFlkVwJL2Tdpq1l22Cjp6GVpLL80V!31132260!181195628!8091!-1
this study concludes that women who exercise 5-7 times a week for 30 minutes each time have a significantly lowered chance of suffering from coronary diseases.
What is surprising is that the exercise was "brisk walking" a relatively easier form of exercising. This aerobic exercise has almost a equal chance of avoiding coronary diseases as those who exercise more intensely.
There is a ongoing research that studies how exercise might be used to help reduce insulin in women. Experiments have demostrated that women not only lost weight, they lowered their risk of breast cancer. Studies have found the relationship between levels of insulin and breast cancer. Overweight women are at risk with high insulin, therefore high risk with breast cancer. Exercising helps women by lowering their insulin and/or fat mass. Overall, excersice has benefits for women’s health. Besides breast cancer, reducing insulin also helps prevents polycustic ovary syndrome.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070604090259.htm and http://www.umass.edu/sphhs/centers/womenh.html
While I was searching through ways to reduce the risk of breast cancer I expected to see more of the same such as exercise or reducing sun exposure, but instead I found a very interesting article that targets aspirin as a source to reducing the chance of breast cancer. According to the University of North Carolina School of public health, regular aspirin use may reduce the risk of breast cancer. I found this article particularly interesting because there is a diagram explaining why aspirin is so effective. Within the article it explains that aspirin is found to inhibit the production of proinflammatory prostaglandins which may prevent cancer. The results show that regular aspirin use can reduce the chance of cancer and tumors and it was also more effective in women that took it 7 times a week or more. This was particularly interesting to me because I always hear of people not wanting to take a lot of aspirin, but now there is contradicting evidence.
Source: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/sep/2004/aspirin.cfm
Of course most people experience weight loss and/ or muscle gain through their exercise regimens, but exercise does indeed provide many other health benefits.
In studies from the Southern Medical Journal by Steven R. Allen, MD, it is shown that regular exercise reduces the risk of colon cancer and diabetes. And its effects on breast cancer and ovarian cancer are still being researched. His findings show that "regular exercise thus contributes to a reduction in mortality rate from 40 per 10,000 woman-years in relatively inactive women to 9 per 10,000 woman-years in the women who are most active" which proves that the average female lifespan is increased with regualr exercise as well.
I thought it most interesting that female high school students who participated in sports activities (exercise) were less likely to get pregnant, be depressed or use drugs. They have higher self-esteem and were more likely to graduate than some girls who did not play sports.
I found many interesting facts about exercise on this page and as far as I can tell, the information presented is convincing and truthful.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/423554
Of course most people experience weight loss and/ or muscle gain through their exercise regimens, but exercise does indeed provide many other health benefits.
In studies from the Southern Medical Journal by Steven R. Allen, MD, it is shown that regular exercise reduces the risk of colon cancer and diabetes. And its effects on breast cancer and ovarian cancer are still being researched. His findings show that "regular exercise thus contributes to a reduction in mortality rate from 40 per 10,000 woman-years in relatively inactive women to 9 per 10,000 woman-years in the women who are most active" which proves that the average female lifespan is increased with regualr exercise as well.
I thought it most interesting that female high school students who participated in sports activities (exercise) were less likely to get pregnant, be depressed or use drugs. They have higher self-esteem and were more likely to graduate than some girls who did not play sports.
I found many interesting facts about exercise on this page and as far as I can tell, the information presented is convincing and truthful.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/423554
After reading this article I am feeling a little better because my grandma was recently diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks ago and my great grandmother had it too. Therefore, I am worried my mother and two sisters are at risk as well. I am glad to see that exercise will reduce the chances in women because my sisters and mom are very active. I also was watching the NBC news the other day which claimed that Asprin, mainly nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can reduce breast cancer risk by 20%. However, they also said that the long term side effects such as ulcers might be worse. More research is needed but it is nice to know that asprin might reduce breast cancer and get rid of a headach.
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