Every Bit of Exercise Helps Your Heart

I think a big hindrance to enjoying life is being hugely overweight. It prevents people from being able to do the most basic things they would normally enjoy doing.

Obesity is a huge problem in the world, and the number of people affected in increasing faster than their waistlines.

Some interesting news for the unmotivated:

  • People who exercise for even less than an hour a week reduce their risk of heart disease by 15%.
  • Those who exercise for 1 – 2 hours a week cut their risk by 40%.
  • And people who exercise for more than 2 hours a week reduce their risk of heart disease by 61%!

Those are some staggering figures, and shows how little effort it takes to stay in some type of healthy state.

fat sportsman

( We have a great weight-loss program/Healthy Eating Program: Stop dieting and start eating with this fantastic program. Click here to have a look at it. You will also learn How to Lose Weight & Get Healthier without starving yourself, depleting your energy or spending a fortune.)

The unfortunate thing is that it’s affecting kids as well, which is something that could easily be prevented.

US researchers have found that obese children as young as seven years old have worrying symptoms linked to heart disease and heart attacks.

Dr. Nelly Mauras, who led the study, said “Our study finding suggests that we need more aggressive interventions for weight control in obese children.”

Mauras and colleagues studied 202 healthy children, 115 of them obese, and half of them past puberty.

The obese children had high levels of c-reactive protein which is linked to heart disease. They also had abnormally high levels of the blood-clotting compared to slimmer children of the same age and gender.

Mauras said “Doctors often do not treat obesity in children, but this practice should be reconsidered.”

Surely it’s not hard to monitor your child’s weight then they’re SEVEN years old!

Is child obesity a curable problem?  Is it lazy parenting? Is it just another by-product of the mtv generation ?

5 Comments on “Every Bit of Exercise Helps Your Heart”

  1. I believe lazy parenting plays a huge role in child obesity. I see everyday on facebook and twitter where parents are seeking advice from others with questions like, “my child will only eat food from McDonald’s, what should I do?” Hello? When I was growing up, I ate what was on my plate or I just didn’t eat. Oh, no! I couldn’t do that to my sweet, screaming, obese child who only wants to eat at McDonalds… that would be cruel punishment. I grew up as a “chubby” child and was subjected to all the name calling at school not to mention the bullying that children have to contend with in today’s society. I received balanced meals, however, it was all the homemade cakes, pies and ice cream after dinner that was considered to be my reward for being such a good girl and a great student. There are other ways to reward a child besides giving them food. Do I blame my parents? Absolutely, not. I’m sure this is how they were brought up and therefore passed down what they knew to the next generation. Parents need to spend more time with their children… even thirty minutes a day, planting a garden, flying a kite, riding a bike together, playing frisbee in the yard, going on a picnic and sharing a watermelon. Yummy! I didn’t plan on this post being so long but hey, there is so much cruelty out in this world, don’t our kids deserve to be happy?

  2. Absolutely Toni. There are much better ways to reward them than by giving them unhealthy food.

    And as for the exercise part, we’re not talking about becoming professional athletes, it’s the small changes people need to make in their lives; choosing the stairs instead of the elevator, playing with a ball outside instead of playing Xbox or PC games. A child shouldn’t spend more time in front of a screen than they do outside.

    And I love your ideas of parent/child time: (planting a garden, flying kites, riding bikes, frisbee, going on a picnic). All these things will create a much stronger bonding session than if they watched a 2-hour movie together.

    Thanks for the comment.

    ~ Rory

  3. Pingback: How to Enjoy Life

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.