Is There Something Better Than Eating Well to Live a Long Healthy Life?

We hear from experts that we need to eat right and exercise to live a long healthy life. Most of us have habits of eating – good or bad. Is there something else that might make up for poor food selection?

Living a long healthy life is not because of one or two things. Just like disease is not caused by one or two things. For example, my research suggested multiple causes – unbalanced nutritional diet, physical inactivity, and stress-primarily when my wife got breast cancer.

We dismissed toxins because we are both attentive to food labels and usually buy organic and fresh foods. Inflammation and infection were also ruled out as a cause. We get a c-reactive protein test every year on our annual physical. The last several readings have all be in the normal range. Other potential causes were also dismissed.

Sleep & Exercise

https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/sleep-exercise-death-longevity/2021/07/01/id/1027140/. Sleep is a difficult thing for many people to control. Some fall asleep rapidly and wake up refreshed and ready for anything. Others have difficulty getting to sleep and wake up still sleepy and groggy. And there is the realm in between.

Many studies show that poor quality sleep can affect your health, especially your long-term health. A recent study shows that exercise can negate some of the effects of poor sleep. When people are assessed with poor quality sleep and physical inactivity, their risk of death from heart disease, stroke, or cancer increases by nearly 60%.

Scientists believe that the ill effects of poor-quality sleep are exacerbated by physical inactivity. So, add exercise and keep your sleep cycle untouched, and you may reduce the risks associated with poor quality sleep alone. Why?

Health experts reason that sleep problems cause hormonal and metabolic dysfunction. Inflammation increases accordingly. Chronic low-level cellular inflammation is the genesis of all diseases. Keep inflammation under control, and you reduce the risk of many diseases.

Sleep and Nervous System

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128040744000182?Sleep is needed for the body to repair itself. Interrupt sleep, and many body systems are interrupted. Medical researchers conclude that poor quality sleep affects the sympathetic nervous system adversely. One of the metabolic dysfunctions that can occur is the release of stress hormones which increase heart rate and blood pressure, one of the causes of heart disease.

Exercise negates the stimulation during sleep of the sympathetic nervous system. The United Kingdom Biobank Study (https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/) contains records of nearly four-hundred thousand middle-aged adults. Self-assessments of sleep patterns were recorded. In addition, the results of sleep quality and exercise levels were analyzed. The lower the sleep assessment, the higher the risk of death from all causes during a follow-up years later.

When exercise was added to the overall equation, scientists discovered that the risk levels of death from all causes went down. Even ten to fifteen minutes of exercise made a difference. Think about that if you classify yourself as a couch potato!

Another noticeable effect was that increased exercise led to better sleep quality. So, increase exercise leads to better sleep which leads to better health. Who would have thought of that?

Conclusion

The study had limitations, and they were acknowledged. However, the fact that exercise did improve the quality of sleep was enormous. So, there is a synergy between sleep and exercise.

A long, healthy, enjoyable, and productive life can be enhanced by better quality sleep. Add some quality exercise into the mix, and your future looks great!

Live Longer & Enjoy Life! – Red O’Laughlin – RedOLaughlin.com

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