Diseases That Exercise Can Treat As You Get Older

By All American Fitness

Dealing with disease and illness is no fun for anyone. It’s a prospect that most people don’t want to think about. However, even doing something small like exercising regularly can help you to manage disease more effectively as you get older.

HEART DISEASE

Regular exercise is an essential part of heart health and can help extend your life and keep your heart working well. Aerobic exercise and resistance training are both really important parts of managing heart disease. Aerobic exercise can help to improve your circulation which will have benefits for your blood pressure and your heart rate, helping you to have less stress on your heart generally. Resistance training can help with cutting down on body fat which is a risk factor for heart disease. Between lifting weights, running or cycling, and doing body resistance exercise, you should be in great shape.

Through thoughtful combinations of exercise, you can manage your heart health and help your heart to run more efficiently and face less stress. Try adding a couple of days of moderate exercise to your schedule to help with your heart health.

CANCER

No matter what kind of cancer you may have, exercising regularly can help to minimize some symptoms and has even shown the potential to prevent recurrence of cancer. If you are suffering from cancer and are looking to start exercising, it is a good idea to start small with walking or yoga and eventually branching out to more strenuous workouts as you gain energy. From breast cancer to cancers of the bones or blood, getting exercise can be very helpful to improving your health, but it is important to talk with your doctors to ensure that you are doing a good amount of exercising and not taking on more than you can handle.

VEIN DISEASE

Taking care of your vascular system is important, especially as you begin aging. Through exercise, you can improve your circulation that can help to prevent or reduce symptoms from vein diseases and varicose veins. Exercise can be a great starting point to help you deal with vein problems, but if you are experiencing a lot of pain associated with your veins, it is a good idea to get vein treatment to help you overcome the problem. Vein treatments tend to be minimally invasive. Even after receiving treatment, you should continue to do regular exercise to prevent further difficulties and keep your veins working well.

TYPE 2 DIABETES

Exercise is an important part of managing and even getting rid of type two diabetes. Unlike type one diabetes which is an autoimmune disorder, type two diabetes can generally be controlled and treated through regular exercise and a good diet. Rather than doing quick intense exercise, which can actually stimulate your body to create glucose, you should do regular moderate exercise that can help you to manage your body’s glucose and insulin creation more effectively. Luckily, this means that you can choose exercise that is comfortable for you and should be simple enough for even beginners and still see the benefits as you manage type two diabetes.

ARTHRITIS

Arthritis affects many people as they age, and it can be incredibly painful and uncomfortable. Exercising can help to mediate that pain and make your arthritis symptoms more manageable. 

From specific exercises for your hands and feet to general exercise that helps you to get your body moving and improve your ability, most levels of exercise will provide some level of relief. If you have always been an active person, you can likely continue to do the normal exercise you participate in, though you may need to modify it slightly to meet your needs, but if you are new to exercising you will want to start with a simple plan that you can follow regularly before adding in more complicated or strenuous exercise.

DEMENTIA

Exercise has a surprising amount of benefits for dementia patients, ranging from physical benefits to mental and cognitive benefits that can improve quality of life. Building muscle and strength through exercise can help to prevent falls and injuries while it can also make doing regular tasks a little simpler. Exercise also has a strong impact on mood, and stress reduction which can help with the mental side of the symptoms of dementia. In addition to these benefits, regular exercise can also help to slow the decline of mental capacity that can accompany dementia which is a huge benefit. Walking, using a stationary bike or treadmill, or participating in low impact aerobics can all benefit people with dementia.

Everyone knows that exercise is an important part of physical health, but it is amazing to see the broad effects it can have when fighting disease. Managing illness with exercise can help to make symptoms less severe and increase energy levels for most people.