Lack of exercise is a serious public health problem in the United States, contributing to chronic disease and premature death. Regular physical exercise is one of the most important steps you can take to protect your health and live longer. Each year, millions of Americans experience health problems that could have been prevented or relieved through regular physical activity.
The benefits of exercise are numerous and affect virtually every part of your body. One important benefit is that exercise can reduce your risk of developing certain common chronic diseases. For example, regular physical activity has been proven to reduce the risk of premature death from heart disease by preventing its development. Regular daily exercise can make your heart stronger, improve blood flow through the arteries that lead to your heart, and lower the level of cholesterol in your blood.
Exercise also lowers your risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, and colon cancer, and helps to reduce blood pressure in people who have high blood pressure. Exercise helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints and prevents back pain by increasing your strength and flexibility and improving your posture. Physical activity also helps to decrease your percentage of body fat by preserving muscle mass. Exercise helps you lose weight and maintain your loss; this is another way exercise helps you stay healthy and live longer.
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The most important thing you should know about quitting smoking is that the harmful effects of the habit begin to reverse almost as soon as you stop. There is no underestimating the difficulty of breaking the smoking habit because of the highly addictive properties of nicotine. You need to build a strong support system within your family and circle of friends and coworkers. You may find that some of the people you know who still smoke may feel uncomfortable or threatened by your efforts to quit. It may be best for you to stay away from them until you feel certain that you can avoid the temptation to smoke.
When you quit smoking, you remove an important source of pleasure and a way to reduce stress from your daily routine. You need to replace the nicotine with something else that gives you pleasure and deal with your stress in more positive ways.
Praise yourself liberally by telling yourself how much better your life is going to be from now on. And remember the following positive things about quitting each time you feel the
urge to take a puff:
- Stopping smoking will free up time that you can now use to exercise, take up a hobby, or spend time with your family.
- You can use the money you used to spend on cigarettes to treat yourself or a loved one to something special.
- Your breath will smell better, your fingers will no longer be yellow, and your clothes and hair will no longer smell like smoke.
- Food will taste better because your sense of smell will improve, and the senses of smell and taste are closely linked.
- Your smoker’s cough will go away in a few months, a sign that your body is healing itself.
- Being a nonsmoker makes you more attractive.
- You will no longer have to stand awkwardly outside of your workplace in the rain and the cold to smoke on breaks or at lunchtime.
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Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 different chemicals; about 200 of them are poisonous, and more than 40 are cancer causing. Smoking is so dangerous that approximately 400,000 deaths are attributed to smoking-related causes in the United States each year. The health problems caused by smoking are the number one cause of death in men in this country.
If you smoke, you will notice the gradual onset of a host of long-term problems. Your senses of smell and taste will weaken, you will get more frequent colds than before, and facial wrinkling will intensify. You also increase your chances of developing cancers of the lung and other organs, emphysema, high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease. You also place your family at risk of the same health problems by exposing them to secondhand smoke.
Despite the dire health prospects facing smokers, many of them continue their habit because of nicotine’s addictive properties. But if you smoke, effective methods exist to help you quit and avoid starting again.
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Carrying excess weight is a known health risk. Excess weight increases the heart’s workload and can raise your chances of getting a number of serious medical conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, adult-onset diabetes, and certain forms of cancer. It also can adversely affect your self-image and make it difficult to exercise.
A healthy weight is actually a range of weight related to your height. If your weight falls outside the upper end of the range for your height, you may be moderately or severely overweight. Obesity contributes to the development of diabetes, heart disease, and gallbladder disease. Obesity also complicates the treatment of and lowers the chances of survival of people with stroke, kidney disease, and numerous other disorders. Losing weight and keeping it off for life can be extremely difficult, but you can control your weight if your motivation stays high. So maintain your weight within the range that is normal for you and you’ll be better off in the long run of life.
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