Walking - Let me count the health benefits
How can you benefit from walking? Let me count the ways.
Let?s start with you bones and joints. You say that you suffer from the aches, pains, discomfort and stiffness associated with arthritis. You?d love to walk, but you just don?t think your bones would survive.
That?s just an excuse. Far too many of us think that because we suffer from osteoarthritis, we need to avoid this marvelous exercise. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Exercise is one of the best methods of minimizing the severity of your arthritis. And that?s not just some statement thrown out there, either. That?s the opinion of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.
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And, of course, one of the best forms of exercise is walking. Just 30 minutes a day can help you to keep your joints flexible. It also serves to keep the muscles around your joints strong. Walking also naturally strengthens both the bone and the cartilage tissue. The pain that is characteristic of this degenerative bone disease is caused by weakening in this area.
Walking also yields great benefits if you suffer from osteoporosis. This is the thinning of the bones that seem to inevitably occur as we age. Three times a week. That?s really all it takes to strengthen the bone and slow the progress of this health concern as well.
Be kind to your heart! It should go without saying that walking provides your entire cardiovascular system with marvelous health benefits. It?s been documented over and over again how this aerobic exercise provides your system with a myriad of benefits. Even as little as 30 minutes a day of walking strengthens the pumping action of the heart, helps to lower blood pressure, normalize your cholesterol level and helps to provide more oxygen as well as an abundance of nourishment to even the tiniest of your blood vessels.
Walking can even lower your level of triglycerides and reduce your odds of experiencing a stroke.
Walking can help normalize your diabetes. With the growing epidemic of obesity in this nation, there?s an accompanying growing incidence of type 2 diabetes. Simply by walking three times a week, you may be able to decrease your body?s need for insulin or other diabetic drugs. This very simple exercise can help control blood glucose, according to Carol Birch. Birch is a registered nurse and an instructor at South Dakota State University College of Nursing.
She cautions though that if you?re not already walking and currently have diabetes, you?ll need to do some planning ahead of time. It?s vital that those with diabetes walk at the same time every day ? at least to start. If you do this, then it?s easier to predict the effects walking has on your glucose control. Once you know how this newly acquired exercise is going to affect your system, you can walk anytime of the day, as long as you carefully monitor your blood glucose level.
