Mundane superfoods – part 4

My top exericse, is very underrated, it is walking, I love it. Here is why. 1. Walking is good for everyone.  Doctors agree  including the elderly, morbidy obese, arhritic and pregnant women.  Walking is gentle enough for most people who have these conditions and the activity can help ease the pain of chronic illness. 2. Walking is free  and easy - no expensive gym fees and no equipment needed! 3. Walking is linked to lower rates of obesity.  People who walk to work are less likely to be obese, 30 minutes walking a day burns 150 calories..  A 2015 study found that even walking just 20 minutes a day can reduce your risk of premature death by 30%. 4. Walking prevents diabetes as it helps regulates blood sugar levels, which in turn keeps insulin levels low at diabetes at day.  A 15 minute walk after a meal is all that is need to help regulate blood sugar levels. 5. Walking is good for year heart. A 2013 study found that walkers who cover the same mileage as runners enjoy comparable reductions in high blood pressure, high cholesterol and coronary heart disease. While it took twice as long for walkers to cover the distance, walking may be a more sustainable and accessible activity than running for most people, especially those who are new to exercise. 6. Walking helps you get a good nights sleep.  Travel experts adivse when you arrive at a new city on the day you arrive to walk around.  The reason is that you expose your body to sunlight and saying outside until it grows dark helps you to recalibarte the hormone melatonin to your new time zone.  As melatonin rises so does feelings of sleepiness. 7. Walking improves your mood protecting you from both anxiety and depression.   Moving your body is a well-known way to release endorphins, a set of feel-good chemicals that dull pain receptors in the brain, sedate you and even give you feelings of happiness and euphoria. That’s why exercise in general, and walking in particular, is recommended to help improve symptoms of mild to moderate depression. A 2005 study found that walking briskly for 35 minutes five times a week, or 60 minutes three times a week, had a significant influence on mild to moderate depression symptoms. References 2015 Study see >> https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/552048/Brisk-20-minute-walk-each-day-could-reduce-risk-early-death 2013 Study see >> http://time.com/3668654/exercise-obesity-walking-premature-death/ Exercise for depression study see >> https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/for-depression-prescribing-exercise-before-medication/284587/  and the 2005 study see >> https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/exercise-is-an-all-natural-treatment-to-fight-depression  

I would like to write a series of blog articles on the scientific evidence for massage.  I think it is important to start by stating the obvious that while massage can be studied, not many scientists are interested in studying it and not many massage therapists have scientific training.  This means that massage is woefully under researched.  In addition it is amazingly difficult to find 100 people with the same problem, who need exactly the same massage treatment, so large scale studies are very rare, which means a weakness of most studies is their size. Finally, while, most scientists are interested in how massage works, we don't have to know how something works to know if it works.  I know most of my clients are interested in scientific evidence but equally important is anecdotal evidence, their own opinion and experience of the treatment. What it crystal clear from scientific data and widely agreed upon by massage therapist researchers is that massage

1. Reduces anxiety
2. Reduces depression
3. Reduces stress
4. Reduces high BP

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the standard approaches to slow the growth of colon cancer  - but high intensity exercise can have the same positive effect - a new study has found. Even a short session of high intensity interval training (HIIT) can induce changes in blood cells that slow the growth of colon cancer cells or even kill them off completely. These positive effects were seen after just one exercise session, although the colon cancer patients went on to complete 12 HIIT sessions over a month. Even after the first session, blood samples showed an increase in markers of inflammation, and when cancer cells in the lab wehre exposed to these samples they started dying, researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered. Although earlier studies have shown that intesntive exercise can dlow the growth of cancer cells, the researchers were surprised to see it was also reducing the number of cancer cells, suggesting they were beign killed off. Reference James L. Devin, Michelle M. Hill, Marina Mourtzakis, Joe Quadrilatero, David G. Jenkins, Tina L. Skinner. Acute high intensity interval exercise reduces colon cancer cell growth. The Journal of Physiology, 2019