The fact that an inactive or sedentary lifestyle can age you at a much accelerated rate making you prone to disease is not exactly earth shattering news. We have known about this for a very long time. The choices you make especially about proper exercise and nutrition truly have a positive affect both in prevention and treatment on just about every disease known to man.
Those same choices can also make your energy levels rise or nose-dive, allow you to stay healthy or weaken and succumb to disease, nourish your body or slowly destroy it. Not exercising and eating poor quality mainly processed foods does not age you just a little bit it can chop more than a decade from your precious life.
But for many, the motivation to make changes often does not occur until a health problem sets in. But by then it may be too late. Most modern 'chronic lifestyle diseases' like the 'big three' heart disease, cancer and diabetes and dozens of others can take years or even decades to show themselves. They may have been smoldering away inside you silently but as they progress symptoms start to appear.
Often in the early stages the symptoms are not even enough for a doctor to diagnose a condition. This stage can continue for years but leave a person in a category that can only be described as the 'walking wounded'. Not sick but far from well either. Many people try not to complain but underneath worry about the fact they know something is wrong with them and that stress only makes the situation worse.
The good news is so much can be done to help. A proper strength training program is the very first place to start. Strengthening the muscular system of the human body also strengthens all the body systems including the immune system. The muscles are the storage sites for the proteins that make the special 'killer' cells that can fight and protect you from disease. So getting them toned up allows for more storage.
It is important that your exercise program is made up of mainly strength training exercises with resistance (weight) as endurance type activity such as walking, jogging or cycling will not directly tone your muscles and this is what is needed if you wish to improve your health. If you put some effort into your program you will get your heart rate up and pumping which will benefit your cardiovascular (heart/lung) system as well.
The next important thing you need to do is ditch as much processed 'so called' foods from your life. Replace them with natural, whole (still in one piece) unprocessed foods and cook them from scratch. Eat some raw vegetables or make juice from them to really help your body deal with whatever is wrong inside. Lean protein should also be eaten at each of 5-7 small meals throughout the day to help restore health.
The human body has magical healing abilities. All you have to do is give it the right tools to do its job. Proper exercise and proper nutrition are the first places to start and are completely under your control. So take responsibility and get yourself started.
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