Do you care about everything in your life, except your life? A recent survey suggests many of us do. The findings illustrate our preference for short term, rather than larger, longer term rewards. 76% of the respondents said they'd work an additional hour a day for a year to receive a 50% increase in pay. But 23% of those same respondents said they wouldn't wake up an hour earlier to go to the gym, even if their life depended on it. A growing body of research suggest it does. Study after study supports the fact that regular exercise, can extend our life span (and income), an additional 7 years or more. Do the math and you'll see; the real dollars are on the side of prevention. And all you need do is walk.
Behavior is shaped by its consequences. Change the consequences, and you'll change the behavior. That's why it takes a train wreck to derail most self -defeating behavior. Behavior that we already know is hazardous to our health. Which explains why the number of those that must endure open heart surgery, stroke or cancer, before getting religion, eating bird food, and walking the talk is downright scary.In the end, as the survey results suggests, most of us would prefer that extra hour of sleep. I've never looked forward to my hike up the mountain. But I'm always pleased I chose to do so on the way down. As Nike suggests, I "just do it". You can too. Consider this.....
In 1971 the government of Finland, declared war on heart disease. after their citizens petitioned officials to help them reduce the world’s highest rate of heart disease. The impact of a sedentary lifestyle, and a diet rich in fatty meats, high fat dairy products (formerly subsidized by the Finish government), and sausage, (with scarce amounts of green food), combined with heavy smoking to produce a reckless formula for disaster. The small Finnish region of North Kareli, with a population of only 180,000, recorded a whopping 1,000 heart attacks annually. Of those, 40 percent proved deadly, and half struck men under the age of 65.
Public sentiment eventually succeeded in pressuring packaged goods makers to substantially reduce the salt content in foods. Eventually, the government abandoned subsidies for high fat food, allowing healthier foods to more fairly compete on a level playing field. The passing of new Finnish legislation in 1980, known as the Sports Act, provided incentives to municipalities to go on an unprecedented building spree, erecting sports arenas throughout the country. Today, most towns in Finland boast one or more of these colossal centers available for public use, making Finland the veritable land of track and field. Their Ministry of Education subsidizes up to 25 percent of the construction of swimming centers alone. From Nordic-style tracks to ice skating rinks, the nation is a shining example of the power of education, when coupled with legislation, directed toward healthier living.
According to researchers Gormann and Hedley, writing for Living Well Magazine:
“... by the early 2000s, the number of deaths of working-age Finnish men from coronary heart disease had plummeted 75 percent. In North Karelia, the number was even better—82 percent—and life expectancy for every man went up 7 years.”
Throughout the world, research continues to show that the leading cause of death is inactivity. When seen in this light, heart disease may be seen to be no more than an effect. Researchers from the University of Hong Kong and Department of Public Health, using linear regression to isolate the impact of inactivity alone on CHD, found that a lack of regular exercise resulted in a higher mortality rate than cigarette smoking!
Despite the evidence, a mere 6 percent of Americans get 30 minutes of exercise per day; helping to explain the growing rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer and more. Simply put, a lack of physical fitness weakens our bodies immune response. In a world where an increasing array of pollutants, carcinogens, and pathogens, along with an unprecedented amount of social stress, combine to make every cell in our body fight for their lives each day. Collectively, this clobbers our immune system, tipping the scale toward dis-ease.
It easy to ad days to your life, and life to your days. Consider these findings:
Alzheimer's: Dr. Cyrus Raji, PhD, a radiologist at the University of Pittsburgh, in an interview with WEBMD Health News, says walking only 3/4 of a mile a day, or about 6 miles a week, is associated with a 50% reduction in Alzheimer's risk over 13 years, in cognitively normal adults. Food for thought.
Breast Cancer: Effects 1 in 8 woman.Most diagnosed cancer in woman.Study: Physical Activity and Survival After Breast Cancer Objective: To determine if women with breast cancer decrease their risk of death from breast cancer by walking; compared to more sedentary women.
Subjects: 2,987 woman diagnosed with breast cancers stages 1-3. Analysis of data, from the Nurses Health Study.
Findings: Death rates reduced by 54% for subjects walking 3-5 hours weekly. 19% reduction - walking 1-3 hours weekly. 42% reduced rate-5-7 hours weekly. 29% reduction - over 7 hours weekly. All at moderate pace.
Publication: JAMA. The Journal of the American Medical Association, May, 2005
Cancer:
6 million deaths annually, worldwide.
Cancer death rates fell 21.0% among men and 12.3% among women during 1991 to 2006.”
Study: 6 Effects of Walking on Mortality among Nonsmoking Retired Men.
Objective: To determine the impact on death rates of cancer from low impact exercise.
Subjects: 760 non-smoking retired men, 60 years of age and older (enrolled in the Honolulu Heart Program).
Study Duration: 12 years.
Findings: Risk for all cancers slashed 50% for men walking 2 miles daily.
Publication: New England Journal of Medicine, January,1998.
Heart Disease:
Cardiovascular disease kills twice as many woman each year as all forms of cancer.
Man or woman, heart disease will kill 1 in 4.
Study: 8 Effects of walking on coronary heart disease in elderly men.
Subjects: 2,678 physically capable elderly men aged 71 to 93 years.
Objective: Effect of weekly walking on death rate from heart disease.
Findings: 50% decrease in death rate from CHD death for men walking 1.5 miles a day versus those walking 0.25 miles daily or less.
Publication: Circulation. July,1999
Stroke:
The only difference between a heart attack and a stroke is the location it occurs.
9In the U.S alone, one person is stricken every 45 seconds
1 person dies from a stroke every 3.1 minutes
Study: Physical Activity and the risk of stroke in woman.
Subjects: 72,488 female nurses ages 40 to 65 years who did not have diagnosed cardiovascular disease or cancer at baseline
Objective: To measure the impact of moderate walking on the death rate of all cancers by BMI (body mass index) in the clinically obese.
Findings: Brisk walking but moderate intensity (a stride) and distance walked, when compared to casual walking, reduced the risk of ischemic stroke by as much as 30%. Intensive walking did not.
Publication: JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association). June, 2000
Obesity:
The average person achieves the weight lost equivalent to 1 M & M by walking the length of a football field.
So what? Do so regularly and you’ll change your metabolic set point. You’ll even burn more as you sleep.
Study: 11 Overweight, Obesity, and Mortality from Cancer in a Prospectively Studied Cohort of U.S. Adults
Measure: Body Mass Index (BMI)
Subjects: 900,000 men and women
Findings: Obesity increases cancer risk by 52%
Publication: New England Journal of Medicine, April, 2003
Dis-ease already exists in most of us.Perhaps it's not discovered yet. It may be a matter of time as it continue on its path, before its chronic enough to be diagnosed. But you can indeed stay ahead of the bell curve, at no cost to you.
Just walk!
