The link between
exercise and heart health is will understood, but new data suggests other organs,
notably the liver, also benefit, and dramatically.
This doesnʻt
mean you need to run marathons or go to other physical extremes. Walking is
sufficient to reduce risks pretty dramatically.
The Harvard
Medical School makes the point clearly: "Walking improves cardiac risk
factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, vascular
stiffness and inflammation, and mental stress.
"And if
cardiac protection and a lower death rate are not enough to get you moving,
consider that walking and other moderate exercise programs also help protect
against dementia, peripheral artery disease, obesity, diabetes, depression,
colon cancer, and even erectile dysfunction."
The article
that quote comes from is a valuable lesson for the sedentary.
The latest
bit of data to support going out on regular hikes is a study that looked at 26
years of data on the exercise habits of 117,000 people. Thatʻs a big study.
The study
notes that cirrhosis of the liver is increasing along with the nationʻs obesity
crisis, but that regular exercise, like walking, can reverse the trend.
"Our
findings show that both walking and strength training contribute to substantial
reductions in risk of cirrhosis-related death, which is significant because we
know very little about modifiable risk factors," said Dr. Tracey Simon, of
Harvard Medical School and lead researcher on the study, which was presented at a conference of Digestive DiseaseWeek.
Their study
found that those in the top fifth in terms of amount of walking reduced their
likelihood of cirrhosis-related death by 73 percent. And those who added
strength training cut their risk even more.
Simonʻs study
was published in the May 2019 edition of the journal Gastroenterology. Her co-authors
were Edward Giovannucci, Kathleen E. Corey, Xuehong Zhang and Andrew T. Chan. The
paper is entitled: Physical activity, including walking and strength training,
are associated with reduced risk of cirrhosis-related mortality: Results
fromtwo prospectice cohors of U.S. men and women.
They followed
68,000 women and 49,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, who
reported their walking, other aerobic activities and resistance exercise over a
period from 1986 to 2012. And they looked at the ones who died during the
period, and whose deaths were attributable to cirrhosis.
"Compared
to adults in the lowest quintile of physical activity, those in the highest
quintile had a 73% lower risk for cirrhosisrelated death," the report
said.
The authors
said thereʻs still need for more research into the best kind of exercise, amount
of exercise and intensity of exercise. But it seems clear that getting out and
moving it has significant benefits for long-term health.
© Jan TenBruggencate 2019
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