It’s common knowledge that regular physical activity is good for you and can help with all sorts of bodily problems both physical and mental, but did you know that almost every facet of the body benefits from getting regular exercise?  Studies have shown that regular bouts of activity (at least 5-6 hours a week at the equivalent effort of mowing your lawn) can help decrease fat deposits around the waist as along with lowering overall fat (triglyceride) and bad (LDL) cholesterol levels in the blood as well as improving the good (HDL). Regular activity also helps improve blood sugar (glucose) levels and improves the body’s resistance to insulin which plays a pivotal role in diabetes prevention and management.  Another benefit to exercise is that it lowers blood pressure, improves immune system function as well as overall heart health and decreases global inflammation in the body which is directly connected to many chronic diseases.

It’s not only the physical body that exercise helps; it also helps reduce stress, anxiety and depression and aids in slowing the aging process and can help minimize damage done by such factors as smoking or chronic diseases like heart disease, heart failure and strokes. Another interesting connection is that through multiple body reactions seen here that occur during regular exercise (keeping free radicals from oxidizing and developing tumors), the rates of cancer is dropped by 46% just by keeping active.