The benefits of sport on health

Regular physical activity strengthens our body, reduces the risk of many diseases and improves our morale. But by what mechanisms?

Playing sports is good for your health. No doubt, since this "truth" is regularly recalled to us. But why ? Why would regular physical activity improve our health and keep us fit? Before explaining why, remember that various studies have shown, among other things, that moving regularly reduces the risk of developing diabetes, dying from a stroke or a heart attack, prevents certain cancers, improves morale, strengthens bones, strengthens muscles, increases breathing capacity, reduces the risk of falls and fractures in the elderly, helps control excess weight, etc. !

All sports have their own uniform. People do Online Shopping Sports in Pakistan. In recent years, research in this area has exploded, expanding these observations. Among other things, exercise would stimulate the brain - and especially the ability to carry out tasks that require attention, organization, planning - and reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety at home. some people. In addition, biologists are beginning to understand the mechanisms triggered at the level of cells and molecules through regular physical activity.

150 minutes of moderate activity per week

Studies are also conducted to find out how the various systems of the body - cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine, nervous, and so on. - are modified by physical exercise. They suggest that the benefits would result from a small improvement in many physiological aspects and not a significant effect limited to a few biological processes.

It has also been realized that there is no need to be a fan of triathlon to reap the benefits of physical exercise. Twenty years ago, experts in preventive medicine advocated only intense activity. Today, they also emphasize the benefits of regular and moderate sessions. One of us (JoAnn Manson) has helped to demonstrate the comparable health benefits of intense and unhealthy exercise in large-scale studies. Conducted from 1976 to 1989, these studies, performed on 238,000 volunteer nurses, are among the largest conducted on factors affecting women's health. Based on their data and others, the latest World Health Organization Physical Activity Guidelines, published in 2010,

Let's look at some of these discoveries and the many ways physical exercise protects and nurtures the body. But first, let's remember how the body reacts to increased physical activity. Snowshoeing, swimming, walking on the beach, exercise can take many forms and practice more or less sustained. Aerobics, for example, is one of the sports that significantly increases the amount of oxygen consumed by the muscles and therefore requires intense lung work. But more static physical activities - weight lifting, balance exercises - are also useful.

Scientists have developed rigorous methods to measure the intensity of aerobic exercise. There is also an effective and less expensive way to evaluate the effort produced: the speech test. If your heart beats a little faster, it is harder to breathe, but you can still talk or recite a poem while moving, it is that your activity remains moderate. On the contrary, if you can only stammer a word or two, it is because the exercise has become intense. Finally, if you can sing, it indicates that the exercise is of low intensity.

When one accelerates the pace, the nervous system prepares the organs for action. The consciousness is more acute, the heart rate accelerates, the breathing is faster and we sweat slightly. Blood flow decreases to non-contributing organs, such as the digestive tract and kidneys, while the blood vessels of the stressed muscles expand, causing an influx of oxygen-rich blood to these tissues.

In muscle cells, oxygen migrates to the mitochondria, compartments that supply their energy to the cells. Mitochondria fuel is the glucose that the body produces from food. Combined with glucose, oxygen triggers a very efficient combustion, producing almost 20 times more energy per molecule of glucose than in the absence of oxygen.

Good for the memory

At first, the body burns the glucose molecules stored in the liver and muscles as a compound called glycogen. During physical activity, the supply of available glycogen decreases and the triglyceride molecules (which contain fatty acids) become the main source of fuel. Combustion produces certain by-products, such as lactic acid and carbon dioxide, which pass through the blood. The increased concentration of these compounds causes biochemical reactions in the brain, lungs and heart, which facilitate their elimination.

The benefits of exercise are felt when it becomes a routine. The body adapts to the increased demands it receives and builds endurance as the person becomes more efficient. For example, the lungs absorb more oxygen as the breathing gets deeper and the heart pumps more blood with each beat. The resulting biological changes improve long-term health.

Many data confirm the effects of physical exercise on the body, whether physiological mechanisms or the activity of certain genes. We will focus here on some recently discovered mechanisms that help to explain why physical exercise increases cognitive abilities, improves control of blood glucose concentration, and strengthens the cardiovascular system.

For a long time, athletes have known that sport is good for morale and improves mental health. But it was not until 2008 that we could measure the state of euphoria of sportsmen after a prolonged effort. It has been shown that the brain releases more endorphins (opiate-like hormones that provide a sense of pleasure) during a long-distance run than during a short-term exercise, and that these substances are active in areas of the brain responsible for strong emotions.

More recently, neuroscientists have been interested in the brain chemical changes associated with exercise that enhance the ability to focus, think and make decisions. In 2011, a study of 120 people aged 55 to 80 years by Kirk Erickson of the University of Pittsburgh, USA, showed that exercise increases the size of the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in the memory. The region modified by the exercise would be one that allows one to remember one's familiar environment. It would also be one of the few areas of the brain that make new neurons - at least in the rat. The new neurons would help distinguish events and similar objects.BDNF .

Work on how physical exercise prevents heart disease, in turn, calls into question the mechanisms envisaged. It was thought that regular activity reduces cardiovascular risks, including lowering blood pressure and lowering the concentration of "bad" cholesterol, the particle   LDL (low-density lipoprotein or low density lipoprotein) in the blood, while increasing that of "good cholesterol", HDL particle   (high density lipoprotein). This was only partly true. If physical exercise reduces blood pressure in some people, for most people, this benefit is quite limited. In addition, physical exercise, especially resistance exercise such as weight training, can increase the concentration of HDL in the blood - a change that occurs after several months - but the effect is limited.

Better cholesterol transport

Other analyzes have shown that physical exercise acts on LDL lipoproteins  more by modifying their properties than by lowering their concentration in the blood. In fact, LDL lipoproteins (and HDL ) are particles made up of proteins and lipids that carry cholesterol, a lipid, in the blood. LDL particles, which are produced in the liver,  carry cholesterol to the tissues, where it participates in the production of cell membranes ( HDL particles  , in turn, transport excess cholesterol to the liver, from which it is excreted in the liver. bile). The particle  LDL can have different sizes.

Several biologists have recently discovered that the smallest LDL particles  are the most harmful. For example, they tend to lose electrons that, within the vessels, strike other molecules or cells and damage them. In contrast, large , much more stable LDL particles  float in the blood without colliding with other molecules.

But studies also show that physical exercise increases the number of large LDLmolecules  , the least harmful, while decreasing the number of small. Their proportion is modified by the stimulation of the activity of an enzyme, lipoprotein lipase, in the adipose tissue and the muscles. Thus, two people with similar blood cholesterol levels do not run the same risk of developing cardiovascular disease. An inactive person, more likely to have a significant proportion of small LDL particles , will be more likely to  suffer a heart attack than one who practices a regular sport.

Regular physical activity has a favorable effect on another essential component of the blood: glucose. The liver, pancreas and skeletal muscles - which move the head, arms, legs and torso - work together to ensure that each part of the body gets the dose of sugar it needs. either at rest or active. Physical exercise requires significant work of the skeletal muscles, these require an increased intake of glucose. In the long run, muscle fibers use glucose more efficiently, making them more robust.

The liver responds to a growing demand for fuel by releasing glucose molecules into the blood, and the pancreas secretes insulin, a hormone that promotes the entry of blood glucose into cells. Blood glucose (the concentration of glucose in the blood) thus remains between 0.7 and 1.4 grams per liter - at least in people without diabetes. Maintaining blood glucose is vital: low glucose levels can cause coma or even death within minutes, and too much blood sugar disrupts cell function.

A way to Fight Diabetes

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When exercise is daily, the muscles become more sensitive to the effects of insulin. The pancreas therefore works less on the regulation of blood glucose: a lower concentration of insulin provides the same results as the higher amounts previously. Various studies also suggest that physical activity would promote glucose uptake by another route, independent of insulin.

Doing more with less insulin is especially helpful for individuals with type 2 diabetes. Their body is no longer able to regulate blood sugar, often because it has become resistant to the effects of the hormone. Physical activity has thus become a key element in the management of type 2 diabetes. It is also now well established that regular physical activity, by improving glycemic control, can prevent or delay the onset of diabetes. type 2.

A high concentration of insulin in the blood - as is the case in people with type 2 diabetes - would also be associated with a higher risk of developing cancer, especially breast or colon cancer. One of the roles of insulin would indeed trigger the proliferation of cells. By reducing the concentration of insulin in the blood, regular sports practice would reduce the risk of developing cancer.

It has also been found that people with diabetes seem to benefit more from physical activity if it is diversified: two large clinical trials have shown that the combination of aerobics and resistance exercises improves blood glucose regulation more than practice of only one of these disciplines. The first study, conducted in 2007, did not make it possible to determine whether the benefits were due to the practice of both types of exercise or to the fact that the people concerned were training longer than those who practiced only one physical activity. . But the second study, led by one of us (Timothy Church), lifted uncertainty. Four groups were formed from 262 hitherto sedentary diabetic men and women: one practicing aerobics (treadmill), a second to endurance exercises (rowing, for example), the third practicing both. The fourth - the control group - chained weekly stretching and relaxation sessions.

The first three groups provided the same effort over the same duration (approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes per week for nine months). They all lost a few inches in waist circumference, and both groups who practiced aerobics improved their fitness. But only participants who practiced both aerobics and endurance exercise achieved a significant decrease in their average blood sugar. These additional benefits suggest that aerobics and endurance exercises operate through different mechanisms - an assumption that various teams, including at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, are attempting to exploit.

In fact, the mechanisms of adaptation to regular physical exercise are multiple, as suggested by the recent discovery of a set of signaling pathways and regulatory molecules involved in the coordination of adaptive responses to exercise. The practice of a regular sport, for example, strengthens the muscles by modifying the production of regulating proteins or by activating various enzymes, some stimulating the transformation of the muscular fibers, the others the reprogramming of the muscular metabolism, and others still, the formation of new mitochondria, the "factories" of energy production. The more they are, the more cells can convert glucose into energy, increasing the strength and fatigue resistance of muscles.