This article came my way and wanted to pass it along. I thought it was excellent! ENJOY!
Mind Your Body and Keep Moving!
From yoga for gut pain to hiking for hypertension, how choosing the right exercise can cure your health problems
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:41 AM on 09th June 2009
We’re always being told that regular exercise is the best way to improve our health and stave off obesity. But did you know that specific types of exercise can help to reduce the symptoms of many common ailments?
Here we review the latest evidence to find out how you can ease health problems ranging from IBS to gum disease through the right choice of exercise.
IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME
Researchers say mind and body therapies, like yoga, help relieve IBS and associated anxiety
THE CURE: Yoga.
HOW OFTEN: Four hours a week.
HOW IT WORKS: IBS is thought to affect around eight million Britons, although with no confirmed cause, diagnosis is tricky and treatment of the debilitating symptoms – which include abdominal bloating and cramping, diarrhoea and constipation – is even more difficult.
However, researchers are beginning to discover that therapies focusing on the mind as well as the body are helpful to sufferers. Gasteroenterologists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver found the ancient practice of yoga to be particularly effective.
Subjects who were given a yoga lesson and then asked to do four hours of yoga moves a week at home, guided by an instructional DVD, had significantly fewer abdominal symptoms and less anxiety compared to a control group who stuck to their normal daily routine.
Another study conducted at the University of Birmingham found 30 minutes of activity (including yoga) five days a week reduced IBS problems.
So why should yoga be beneficial for IBS? As well as treating the body, yoga is thought to help treat the mind – the same reason cognitive behavioural therapy (or CBT) has proven to help IBS sufferers.
ALSO TRY: Swimming or Aqua-aerobics. Both are the kind of low-impact forms of aerobic exercise that have shown to be helpful when performed in moderation (3-5 times a week).
* Author Martina Cole’s tips to beat arthritis…fish oil, steamy saunas but skip red wine and tomatoes
BACK PAIN
THE CURE: Alexander Technique.
HOW OFTEN: A course of 24 lessons, then daily.
HOW IT WORKS: Regular activity has long been known to ease chronic back pain, but a study published in the British Medical Journal last year suggested the popular postural awareness therapy Alexander Technique could provide the greatest benefit.
Devised by Frederick Matthias Alexander, an Australian actor who suffered stressinduced breathing problems, this method re- educates the body to achieve postural harmony.
A teacher will assess your posture and how you move about. Then he or she will teach you how to sit up straight, walk without hunching over and other techniques to improve balance and co-ordination and relieve pressure on the spine.
Professor Paul Little, a primary care specialist who specializes in back problems, found that one year after the trial started, the average number of activities limited by back pain had fallen by 42% in the Alexander group, and the number of days in pain were only three a month, compared with 21 days in the control group. The Alexander group said their quality of life increased enormously as they were pain-free.
ALSO TRY: Pilates. This aims to strengthen the core muscles that support the spine; several studies have shown it significantly reduces chronic back pain.
GUM DISEASE
THE CURE: Aerobics
HOW OFTEN: Three classes a week of 45 minutes to one hour duration.
HOW IT WORKS: Until recently, good oral hygiene habits of brushing and flossing regularly were the only health behaviours identified as helping prevent gum disease.
But a study of more than 12,000 people published in the Journal of Periodontology revealed that regular gym-goers who did a range of aerobic classes were 40% less likely to develop periodontitis, a gum infection that can result in loss of teeth and lead to an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University in the U.S. found that five or more moderate physical activity sessions or three intensive activity sessions a week combined with a healthy diet and oral health regime reduced the risk of gum disease.
ALSO TRY: Spinning, the high-intensitygroup indoor cycling class, could also help because the high effort it requires is similar to aerobics.
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
THE CURE: Hiking.
HOW OFTEN: 30-60 minutes at least three times a week.
HOW IT WORKS: Hiking on rocky or uneven stones has profound benefits for health. If you can find some cobblestones to walk over, even better. Physiologists at the Oregon Research Institute found cobblestone-walking, an activity rooted in traditional Chinese medicine, led to significant reductions in blood pressure and improvements in balance.
Hiking picture
Relief: Hiking on rocky surfaces is thought to lower blood pressure by stimulative acupressure points on the soles of the feet
It is thought that the uneven surfaces might stimulate acupressure points on the soles of the feet, thereby regulating blood pressure.
According to the theories of Chinese medicine, applying pressure to acupressure points around the body helps to clear blocked channels that can lead to illness and problems such as high blood pressure. Because it is challenging, it will burn more calories than walking on even ground.
In the Oregon study, which was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Dr Fuzhong Li asked subjects either to take part in a 60-minute group session of walking on cobblestone mats or to take a walk three times a week for 16 weeks.
At the end of the study, mat-walkers had better scores on measures of balance, physical function and blood pressure than those in the conventional walking group.
ALSO TRY: Tai chi, the ancient martial art, has been shown to have benefits for several aspects of heart disease, including high blood pressure. A study presented to the American Heart Association showed that Tai Chi lowered blood pressure in older adults nearly as much as moderate-intensity aerobic exercise such as running.
OSTEOPOROSIS
THE CURE: Running.
HOW OFTEN: 30 minutes, three to five days a week.
HOW IT WORKS: Activities that are ‘high impact’ (which involve pounding on the ground) boost bone density and help to prevent the brittle bone disease osteoporosis, but running tops the lot, according to experts.
In a study published earlier this year, Pam Hinton, professor of nutrition and physiology at the University of Missouri, compared the long-term effects of running, cycling and weighttraining on bone density, and found that regular runners had the strongest spines. ‘Both weight-training and high-impact endurance activities will increase bone mineral density,’ Hinton says. ‘But a high-impact sport, such as running, appears to have a greater beneficial effect.’
She adds that those who do only non-weight-bearing exercise, such as cycling, swimming or rowing, should try to incorporate some runs into their fitness programme.
ALSO TRY: Tennis, basketball and skipping, because they each involve some of the pounding that is required for weight-bearing exercise.
DEPRESSION:
THE CURE: Kite Flying!
Researchers have found it works at reducing the signs of depression.
THE CURE: Walking.
HOW OFTEN: 30 minutes a day.
HOW IT WORKS: Feeling blue? Then ‘ecotherapy’ – walking in a park or the countryside – could be the key to boosting your mood. Several researchers have found walking to be the best way to banish mild to moderate depression.
Mental health charity Mind says the best places to walk are parks or the countryside. According to studies at the University of Essex commissioned by Mind, a walk surrounded by nature reduces depression whereas a walk in a shopping centre or city increases mood problems.
An earlier U.S. study found that three brisk, 30-minute walks a week had greater effects on reducing depression than antidepressant drugs.
Six months after 150 subjects had completed the 16-week walking program, only 8% saw their depression return. Ecotherapy works by boosting the feelgood hormones endorphins by walking and tapping into our instinctive enjoyment of Nature.
ALSO TRY: Gardening has also been shown to help.
DIABETES
THE CURE: Weight training for woman
Muscling in: Diabetics should try weight training as well as aerobic exercise, new research suggests
THE CURE: Weight-training.
HOW OFTEN: Twice a week.
HOW IT WORKS: People with Type 2 diabetes are usually advised to do more aerobic exercise (running, swimming and cycling, for example) to lower body fat and improve glucose control. But a recent study showed that adding weight-training to the mix could have positive results.
Professor Robin Marcus, of the American Physical Therapy Association, asked Type 2 diabetics to take part in a 16-week supervised workout programme.
Half of the subjects did only aerobic exercise for 30 minutes a day, five days a week; the rest did a combination of aerobic activity and twice-weekly weights performed using a leg-strengthening machine at the gym.
After three months, both groups had less body fat and improved glucose control. But those using the weights also had a decreased Body Mass Index, used as a benchmark for ideal height-to-weight ratio and stronger leg muscles.
‘Aerobic exercise should not be used in isolation,’ says Marcus. Adding resistance training to the mix increases the amount of lean muscle issue, which boosts metabolism and helps to control glucose levels, Marcus says.
ALSO TRY: Body Pump classes – a mix of weight training and aerobics – are an easy way to get the mix of exercise. Try two classes a week.
HEADACHES
THE CURE: Cycling.
HOW OFTEN: 30 minutes, three to four times a week.
HOW IT WORKS: For some people who suffer regular headaches, exercise can act as a trigger although no experts understand exactly why. Several researchers have suggested that endurance activities such as cycling and indoor rowing can be helpful, possibly because they raise the levels of feel-good hormones like endorphins that also act as natural painkillers.
A recent study published in the Journal of Head and Face Pain showed that indoor or outdoor cycling had reduced the frequency of attacks by 90%.
Dr Emma Varkey of the Cephalea Headache Centre in Gothenburg, Sweden, based her findings on a survey of 68,000 adults and showed that inactive subjects were 14% more likely to develop headaches over an 11-year period.
Cycling seems to help, Varkey says, because the continuous aerobic activity increases oxygen distribution. With cycling, there is also none of the pounding that comes with running, aerobics and power-walking that can sometimes lead to headaches.
Activities that place excessive strain on the body (such as weight lifting) should obviously be avoided.
It is worth noting that headaches that occur during a workout can be caused by dehydration or low bloodsugar (from eating too little carbohydrate prior to a gym session).
ALSO TRY: Regular yoga – at the University of California’s Davis Medical Centre, a study showed that 75 per cent of all headaches arise from muscle tension in the back of the neck, specifically the semispinalis capitis muscles, due to problems in posture. Yoga was found to correct this, reducing the frequency of headaches.
