If the latest infomercials and magazine covers are any indication, weight loss is on everyone’s minds these days. And while a healthy weight is a good goal, when it comes to eating right and exercising, it shouldn’t be the sole focus. Even worse, according to one study, people who diet or exercise just to lose weight quit a lot sooner than people who make healthy changes for other reasons, and they really don’t lose weight in the long term. The researchers found that the most successful motivation for sticking to a healthy lifestyle was ‘feeling better about themselves’ for women and ‘better health’ for men.
1. It works as an antidepressant
Antidepressant medications have been a godsend for many people, but one study found that depression sufferers who did aerobic exercise showed just as much improvement in their symptoms as people on medication. In fact, after four months, 60 to 70 percent of the subjects couldn’t even be classified as having depression.
2. It reduces risk of metabolic syndrome
If there’s a modern-day health villain, it would be the scary-sounding metabolic syndrome. Comprised of three factors – increased blood pressure/cholesterol, high blood sugar, and excessive fat around the waist – it’s one of the strongest indicators that one is headed for an early grave. Researchers say that exercise can almost totally obliterate metabolic syndrome and even reverse the damage. Exercise is such a health preventative superstar that Jordan Metzel, M.D., recently declared it to be ‘a miracle drug that prevents almost every illness, is 100 percent effective, and has very few side effects.’
3. It reduces PMS symptoms
In one study, teen girls performed 60-minute cardio sessions three times a week for eight weeks. Afterward, they reported their symptoms from PMS, especially depression and anger, were markedly better, so much so that the researchers concluded that exercise should be prescribed as a cure for PMS.
4. It reduces stress and anxiety
Science says that working out is one of the fastest ways to clear cortisol, the stress hormone, out of the system and calm a frantic mind. ‘Comfort foods’ won’t make much of a dent in stress levels either. It wipes out allergies too. Allergies can really take the fun out of a workout, but there’s a good reason to lace up those gym shoes even with an allergy attack. Researchers in Thailand reported that running for 30 minutes can reduce sneezing, itching, congestion, and runny nose by up to 90 percent.
5. It strengthens the heart
It may feel like the heart is thumping itself out of the chest during those hill sprints, but the body will thank you later for it. As shown in an extensive report from the American Heart Association, exercise strengthens heart muscle as well as reduces risks of heart disease and other related conditions, reducing chances of a cardiovascular syndrome by nearly 30 percent.
6. It helps resist temptation
If a person is addicted to sugar, cigarettes, or even heroin, exercise could play an important role in resisting substance abuse of most kinds. In one study, scientists found that the endorphin rush released during exercise acts on the same neural pathways as addictive substances, giving the same ‘high’ as drugs do, only it’s great for the body and not vice versa.
7. It protects your peepers
Recent research found that one of the best ways to protect the eyes and stave off age-related vision loss is regular cardiovascular exercise. In one study, active mice kept twice as many retinal neurons as the sedentary fur balls. It adds years to life and life to years. People who exercise live longer. Research has shown that up to seven years can be added to life by exercising a minimum of 150 minutes a week (that’s just three days of working out for 50 minutes), regardless of weight. Even better, those extra years will be happy ones. A recent study found that people who exercise reported feeling happier than their couch-potato peers.
8. It strengthens bones
According to one landmark study, the best way to build bone density and reduce the risk of fractures and osteoporosis into old age is to do weight-bearing exercises like running or dancing. The researchers found that adults who exercised moderately or strenuously had better bone density than those who exercised little or not at all. However, adults who quit exercising later in life lost bone mass even if they’d exercised regularly earlier in their youth.
9. It saves money
Gym memberships are expensive. Home equipment can be an investment too. But it turns out that investing in your fitness is as money-saving as it is smart. People often lament that healthy food is pricier than processed junk food. One Fortune 500 company estimates that for each dollar spent on preventative health, including exercise, it saves $2.71 in future health costs.
10. It helps with fertility too
Harvard researchers found that men who exercised had a higher concentration of sperm in their semen and that the sperm was of better-than-average quality. A meta-analysis looking at nearly 27,000 women found that those who worked out had lower rates overall of infertility, higher rates of implantation, and lower rates of miscarriage. One caveat though; women who exercised too strenuously or too much impaired their fertility, so it’s all about balance. Researchers advise hitting the gym three times a week for an hour each time.
11. It makes you a sex god
Sweating in the gym improves performance in the bedroom too. But in this case, women really score, as certain exercises have been linked to ‘coregasms,’ or getting an orgasm from doing abs work. A separate study found that men who work out have a lower incidence of impotency and erectile dysfunction while experiencing more powerful orgasms. For women, the effect of a good diet is even more potent, as a separate study found that access to healthful foods was the number one predictor of high fertility rates in women who aren’t using birth control.
12. It helps disturbed sleep patterns
Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the most important things for health. In a meta-analysis that looked at dozens of sleep studies, researchers found that people who exercised regularly had less incidence of insomnia and a higher quality of sleep.
13. It’s anti-ageing
Research has found that exercisers truly are younger, on a cellular level, than their same-aged peers. Telomeres, the cap on the ends of DNA, start out long at birth and get progressively shorter with age. Up until recently, it was thought there wasn’t much we could do to change that, but a new study showed that endurance athletes have longer telomeres than their peers, while a second study found that moderate exercise can lengthen your telomeres by up to 10 percent.
14. It blasts bad fat and boosts good fat
In today’s fat-phobic society, fat is public enemy No. 1. But not all fat is problematic. Brown fat is a metabolic boon, and hip and thigh fat in women has some possible hormonal benefits too. But the one kind we definitely don’t want is visceral fat, the type in the midsection packed around internal organs. Belly fat is particularly susceptible to exercise. A study last year found that high-intensity interval training blasted belly fat the fastest.
15. It makes the brain sharper
Building muscles also help build brain cells. A meta-analysis of the effects of exercise on the brain found that fitness improves memory, boosts cognition, helps in faster learning, increases brain volume, and even makes one a better reader. In addition, recent studies have found that working out helps prevent cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer’s.
16. It manages chronic pain
With chronic pain, even getting out of bed is hard enough, much less heading out to pump some iron or go for a run. Yet research shows that a moderate exercise program gives both short-term and long-term improvements for people who have chronic pain, even if the underlying condition remains.
17. It provides an iron-clad immune system
Research has found that exercise three times a week and getting a five-a-day of fruit and veggies can boost the immune system and save a person five sick days a month. Remember to season those veggies with garlic – people who ate the clove daily got 64 percent fewer colds and recovered faster than those with less stinky breath.
18. It fixes the DNA
A recent study in the brand-new field of epigenetics found that eating a healthy diet can ‘turn on’ good DNA and ‘turn off’ some bad DNA, leading to long-term and even generational benefits. So while people probably can’t get nutritional nose jobs, they can eat their way to less heart disease – and spare their children from inheriting the risks too.
19. It cures irritable bowel syndrome
IBS sufferers experience debilitating pain, bloating, tenacious constipation, and embarrassing (sometimes public) displays of diarrhea. But new research has found a link between the bacteria living in a person’s gut and their chance of having IBS, saying that eating probiotics helped the majority of sufferers find some respite. And don’t just look to yogurt to get a probiotic fix. Remember the three Ks – kaffir lime, Korean kimchi, and kombucha.
20. It makes (future) children smarter
There’s nothing fishy about this – a pediatric study shows pregnant women who eat a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids, DHA specifically, go on to have kids with higher IQs at age four than moms who avoid seafood. And another study demonstrated that children who supplemented with DHA or ate a lot of fish also showed cognitive improvements. Other research by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) has also shown that magnesium, found in foods like dark chocolate and whole oats as well as broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, helped improve fertility rates in couples with increased incidents of induced sterility.