By Sacrifice your TV time to do something beneficial for your health
Your health is your wealth. We all know this, but the lack of importance in our diet and physical activity is still apparent today. Despite all the health warnings that stem from eating a processed diet or sitting down for hours, we still ignore the inevitable — until one day, we fall prey to some health issue. Your life doesn’t have to move in that direction, and you can change it by adopting some movement into your life — a least five hours of it per week. The first study to estimate the number of cancer cases attributed to physical activity was led by Adair Minihan, MPH, at the American Cancer Society. The following cancers were apparent
- breast
- endometrial
- colon
- stomach
- kidney
- oesophageal
- urinary bladder
All of these cancers were associated with a lack of exercise. The study focused on men and women with the highest portion of cancer in the South, such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The lowest portions of cancer were found in the Mountain region and northern states, such as Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and Wisconsin. Although I’m encouraging physical activity, there may be barriers or limitations to how much someone can exercise. For instance, working long hours in a low-paying job, the cost of gym memberships and the lack of a safe environment to exercise. There is a greater need to encourage physical activity in areas of lower economic status as a prevention mechanism. Individual and community lead initiatives should address these habitual and socio-economical barriers to physical activity.
Imagine all the preventions of hospital admissions with some initial education and a small intervention of physical activity.
Some simple ways to be active when you are time poor or live in a compromised neighbourhood
One: Visit a local park regularly, and why not take your children along for some much-needed family exercise? Two: Exercising in groups of people is always a lot safer than on your own. Gather friends, family and people in the neighbourhood: encourage everyone to participate. Three: Set up a challenge: Challenges are a lot of fun, and competing with people you love in a friendly manner, can help you generate a significant incentive to keep you active and eating better. Four: Keep moving regularly in your own home or when working. Please don’t sit down for longer than an hour, and instead of using devices, walk to other people’s desks to spark a friendly conversation. Although the focus of this post is regarding a particular area of location in America, we can all use this as a basis for our own health goals. Most people in the world are generally sedentary — it’s a known fact. Desk jobs, lack of health goals, affordability and lack of awareness of how these small things can impact our lives are seen worldwide. We could all use a warning to help us increase our chances of having a healthy life, eliminate endless doctor visits for medication, and increase our chances of long-duration hospital admissions. If we use our creativity, we can find many ways to stay active, and when it comes to our health and wellbeing, isn’t it worth it?
In what ways do you increase your activity every day? Please share them below so we can all get some creative ideas.
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