Exercise Benefits


SpiritDragon
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Partly because of a desire to help out in the weight loss thread I wanted to share some of the many benefits of exercise, which go far beyond weight loss. 

I'm sure most of us are familiar with exercise being beneficial to the cardiovascular system, but perhaps not as familiar with the ability of exercise to improve immunity, help resist cancer, fight diabetes, and improve mental health issues and cognitive function.

I'd love for everyone to feel welcome to share insights about exercise being helpful for anything and everything. I'd love sharing of personal experiences/ anecdotes, research studies, case reports, youtube videos, something you heard on the radio and so on.

Let me kick this off with a Ted talk on the benefits of exercise for the brain because I don't think the effects of exercise on the brain are known of widely enough.

 

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1 minute ago, SpiritDragon said:

... anything and everything....

You should know by now I can't resist opportunities to be snarky1.  Benefits of exercise:

1) You turn the heat down, so you save money (in winter).

2) You're too hot and sweaty to want to make or eat food, so you lose weight.

3) It's an excuse to turn the volume up until the windows rattle.  (If making the windows rattle doesn't make you happy, you're listening to the wrong music.)

1I'm pretty sure the only thing I got in trouble for as a student was being snarky.

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  • 4 weeks later...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1402378/

Sorry it's been a while - I've had a busy January pushing in to February. I thought this article might be of interest.

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METs are metabolic equivalents representing an increased work output by a factor of the given number - so 5 METs represents five times the work being done at rest, and 8 Mets represents doing 8 times the amount of work being done at rest, perhaps more accurately put using eight times the oxygen used at rest since this is how it's determined. This table shows that those who are capable of achieving more than 8 Mets are at the lowest risk of death from the causes listed. Thus fitness is protective against these conditions independent of other factors.

Cool finding for heart disease - enough exercise may actually reverse plaque build up.

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An energy expenditure of about 1600 kcal (6720 kJ) per week has been found to be effective in halting the progression of coronary artery disease, and an energy expenditure of about 2200 kcal (9240 kJ) per week has been shown to be associated with plaque reduction in patients with heart disease.

Another stand out in regard to diabetes:

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In one of the RCTs,53 a lifestyle intervention that included moderate physical activity for at least 150 minutes per week was found to be more effective than metformin alone in reducing the incidence of diabetes. It showed that only 7 people would need to be “treated” with the lifestyle intervention to prevent a single case of diabetes over a 3-year period, compared with 14 people given metformin.53

By the numbers it appears that 2 1/2 hours of moderate physical activity is twice as effective as a leading drug - powerful stuff.

Cancer too:

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A systematic review of epidemiologic studies revealed that moderate physical activity (> 4.5 METs [equivalent to mowing the lawn]) was associated with a greater protective effect than activities of less intensity.65 Physically active men and women exhibited a 30%–40% reduction in the relative risk of colon cancer, and physically active women a 20%–30% reduction in the relative risk of breast cancer compared with their inactive counterparts

Don't forget bone health:

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The risk and incidence of fractures is also reduced among active people.93–95 Among 3262 healthy men (mean age 44 years) followed for 21 years,96 intense physical activity at baseline was associated with a reduced incidence of hip fracture (hazard ratio 0.38, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.91). This observation supports findings from an earlier investigation in which fracture rates were lower among people who performed more weight-bearing activities than among sedentary people.97

In summary, routine physical activity appears to be important in preventing loss of bone mineral density and osteoporosis, particularly in postmenopausal women. The benefits clearly outweigh the potential risks, particularly in older people.

Keep in mind that physical activity is not only useful for prevention, but managing multiple conditions as well. The article gives great insights into some of the most notable findings.

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So yesterday, I finally was well enough to do my very first exercise session since Thanksgiving of last year.  I walked a 5K.  Not jogged.  Walked.  And boy... my heart is definitely the weakest it has ever been in my entire life.  But no worries.  The fact that I finished a 5K without passing out is looking at it with glass half full.  And tomorrow, I'll do even better.

Meanwhile, here's one of my favorite TED talks on exercise and weight loss:

 

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Okay @NeuroTypical let my divulge what I can spout out about creatine off the top of my head. It's important to understand a little bit about basic bioenergetics to understand why supplementing may be useful. In the body creatine is bound to phosphate groups which can be broken off to quickly replenish energy stores. The primary energy currency in the body is ATP (Adonsine triphosphate) or an adenosine compound attached to three phosphates. The energy is liberated from the molecule by breaking a phosphate group off leaving ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate) and a lone phosphate. Creatine phosphate in our cells can quickly turn over phosphate that is energized ready to replenish ADP to ATP continuing to fuel high power output over short period of time.

When supplementing with creatine monohydrate (the most common supplemental form) the creatine is capable of being taken up into the muscles allowing for larger stores of creatine phosphate leaving a greater reserve of fast-acting energy. This make creatine very useful for athletes that compete in short and explosive power events such as sprinting 100M or even powerlifting or Olympic lifting as some examples. Creatine also makes it easier to gain muscle weight because the increased energy storage in the muscles also brings on additional water into the muscles. 

Creatine can also be useful to recreational exercisers by giving them the ability to push a little harder to elicit greater training adaptations. I seem to recall that it also helps recovery so that more workouts are possible in the same amount of time - but I'd need to verify that, so don't quote me on it.

Often times the dosing is recommended on a ramping up protocol starting with a teaspoon a day and building up to anywhere from 3-5 teaspoons a day over the course of around a month. After the ramping protocol is finished a person can lay off for a while and then ramp up again a month or two later. However, it is just as effective to take a teaspoon a day more consistently and skip the ramping stuff. It's more of bro-science and marketing hype to do it that way - at least that is what the evidence showed nearly a decade ago when I last delved into getting a grasp on the stuff.

One cool finding though is that creatine may improve cognitive function, particularly in vegans as they are not getting the naturally occurring zoochemicals like creatine from eating flesh.

Oh and is does seem like it may work better if taken with fruit juice or a fast acting sugar, as opposed to simply in water, but there again, it might not be enough of a difference to warrant the extra calories when weightloss is part of your goal. Creatine is generally part of a mass gaining supplement arsenal.

It is one of the most extensively researched ergogenic aids, and really hasn't brought up any alarming safety data, so it is probably quite safe, but certainly not essential.

Do you have some more specific questions about it that I might be able to help with? 

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Yay!  I've been taking about a tablespoon a day for a while, but I couldn't exactly remember the advice I was taking that had me give it a try.  I do distinctly remember a claim to the effect of "This has been one of the more studied substances out there, and if there was some harmful or dangerous impact we would have found it by now", so you're another good source of that message. 

Thanks!

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Just now, NeuroTypical said:

Yay!  I've been taking about a tablespoon a day for a while, but I couldn't exactly remember the advice I was taking that had me give it a try.  I do distinctly remember a claim to the effect of "This has been one of the more studied substances out there, and if there was some harmful or dangerous impact we would have found it by now", so you're another good source of that message. 

Thanks!

Happy to help.

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I find this site to be a useful resource for getting a snapshot of what various supplements are good for. I feel sometimes they seem to be missing some important information, but they look to have creatine covered quite well.

https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/

As for the safety aspect in particular they have this to say:

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Creatine is one of the most thoroughly researched compounds, and no adverse side effects have been noted through supplementation.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

So they give it a very safe review.

One new thing I learned is that it may help cognition in the sleep deprived - I'm glad you gave me a reason to check in on this. I have young children and work a varied shift sometimes being out to 9:00 pm or later and often being up at 4:00 am to start early shifts... I may have to start taking some.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay irritable bowels sufferers, did you know exercise has been shown to be helpful for making bowels less irritable?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1043466617303873

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30232834

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4294172/pdf/WJG-21-600.pdf

https://www.nature.com/articles/ajg2010480

One of the best endorsements from the studies above states:

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Increased physical activity improves GI symptoms in IBS. Physically active patients with IBS will face less symptom deterioration compared with physically inactive patients. Physical activity should be used as a primary treatment modality in IBS.

In fairness, though, the overall quality of the evidence is still considered weak according to the American College of Gastroenterology.

https://gastrogirl.com/wp-content/uploads/Ford_et_al-2018-The_American_Journal_of_Gastroenterology.pdf

Their statement:

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Although it is clear that exercise ofers general health benefts and, whenever possible, should be encouraged the Task Force did not feel that the weight or strength of available evidence justifed a strong recommendation regarding exercise for IBS. Although encouraging, the Task Force feels that the current body of evidence should be viewed as hypothesis-generating, and in need of validation by methodologically rigorous, appropriately powered, RCTs

My take is that exercise will almost surely help other things at the same time and is unlikely to make anything worse, so why not give it a try and see. I expect that as more research comes to light on this one that the evidence will become more robust in favour of exercise/physical activity helping. Why wait for the research though when going for a walk everyday is free and proven to be beneficial for other health matters as well?

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For those who can't stand the idea of running or cycling, but like to hit the weight room, here's some relatively good news:

https://insights.ovid.com/crossref?an=00005768-900000000-96766

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 Compared with no RE, weekly RE frequencies of one, two, three times or total amount of 1-59 minutes were associated with approximately 40-70% decreased risk of total CVD events, independent of aerobic exercise

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(17)30167-2/fulltext

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Participating in resistance exercise, even less than 1 hour per week, was associated with a lower risk of development of MetS, independent of aerobic exercise. Health professionals should recommend that patients perform resistance exercise along with aerobic exercise to reduce MetS. (MetS = Metabolic Syndrome which involves insulin resistance, obesity, and imbalanced blood fats)

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(17)30877-7/fulltext

This one is particularly amusing and makes me want to see the source information to get a better sense of what's going on in the study as it appears to suggest that resistance training alone lowers cholesterol better than when combined with aerobic activity (31-32% compared to 21% reduction)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3906547/

This is a slightly older review of research to date on exercise for cholesterol which shows great benefits of either form of exercise, but no substantial improvement by combining modes of activity. Thus for the cholesterol lowering benefits it may just be that whatever floats your boat is going to help. Although, certain intensities and durations do have more or less impact.

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