The Misconception About Health and Regular Exercise -By Mukaila Kareem

It never fails! Every time I have a discussion about regular exercise with friends, family or complete strangers, the response is always the same: they either say they stopped exercising because the weight did not come off or they would start exercising because they need to lose some weight! Modern man has radically tamed his environment that his so called inherited “thrifty gene” (no such gene exists biologically) is having a hard time adapting to the excessive consumption of high dense calories and salty diets in a sedentary environment. This is extremely different from the times of our forbearers who lived in extraordinary hostile environments and had to be on the constant move in search of unpredictable paltry food supplies.

Physical exertion in pursuit of irregular food supplies was therefore mandatory and the idea of planned weight loss was inconceivable to our forbearers. However, their ability to store energy during times of feasting and draw from the stored energy in times of famine allowed them to adapt to their harsh environments. Modern man inherited the same nomadic thrifty gene that was advantageous to our ancestors but this has metabolically turned against us due to a mismatch between uninterrupted food supply and low energy expenditure. As a matter of fact, the frequent obligatory movement for survival by our forbearers, has been reduced to basic short distances within our houses or offices and it now appears that the only mandatory movement is the bathroom or toilet trip. Excessive energy storage, with inappropriate deposits in the stomach, liver, skeletal muscle, around the heart and other wrong places is triggering chronic immune responses just like the introduction of an antigen in an infectious state. This is causing modern chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and certain cancers.

The “Benefits” of Exercise

We often talk about the benefits of exercise in a way that suggests that there is another fundamental activity superior to exercise. The fact of the matter is that exercise confers and sustains health. While some have certain preferences for certain food and a few need some drugs to resolve some disease conditions, however without exception everyone needs to engage in exercise at varying levels of tolerance. The American College of Sports Medicine has declared that “exercise is medicine”. Nigerians are familiar with various forms of concoctions being peddled on public transportation in our major cities as “gbogbonse” or polypills. In fact exercise is the most potent and costless polypill that is yet to be dispensed. It is so appreciated that everyone wants to get in it and oftentimes it is highly under-appreciated, as they quickly abandon it when the expectation of weight loss fails to materialise soon enough! The truth is that I have not met anyone on maintenance medication for hypertension, diabetes or high cholesterol who gets off their medications just because they could not lose weight! The beneficial effects of a bout of exercise are much more and not physically visible, just as you cannot see the physical benefits of your hypertensive or diabetic medicines.

A bout of exercise such as brisk walking promotes the ying-yang balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory “juices.” It also reduces blood pressure via a phenomenon known as post-exercise hypotension that can last up to 22 hours. Furthermore acute exercise has the immediate effect of increasing the sensitivity of skeletal muscle and therefore improves insulin action to maintain physiological blood glucose levels. Did I mention that the acute effect of brisk walking increases the good cholesterol level and decreases the long term risk of strokes and hypertension? By the way, these two diseases prematurely kill over 200,000 Americans, and a possibly a whole lot more Nigerians, every year due to lack of physical activity and other unhealthy choices like smoking.

Exercise and Weight Worries

There are many immediate benefits of exercise that would not show on your weighing scale! Overall, the protective health effect of chronic exercise reduces frequent doctor visits, reduces multiple medications (polypharmacy) and promotes physical fitness with a good quality of life. Personally, I have not stepped on the scale for several months but I do engage in regular exercise more days than not. Why not weighing often? Weight gain or loss should never be the reason to engage in regular exercise. Just like a good hygiene habit is the best infection control, regular exercise, along with moderate food consumption, is the costless measure to prevent, delay and control modern chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, strokes, hyperlipidemia and certain cancers. In fact, a study stated that wild animals are not known to have chronic diseases and that these conditions are hardly present in modern hunting and gathering societies. The positive side effect of regular exercise is weight loss but it takes time. Trying to exercise purposely to lose weight is like putting the cart before the horse. Remember the thrifty gene? Yeah, it is meant to conserve and would “fight” to hold onto every pound of stored fat but stays on the sidelines as we eat ourselves to death.

The World Health Organisation recommends 30 minutes of brisk walking five or more days per week for health maintenance. This is generally safe and tolerated by most people. Remember, those who exercise to lose weight will ultimately gain it!

Mukaila Kareem (MD) is a US based physiotherapist and a passionate physical activity advocate. He blogs on www.healthcrowonline.com, and can be reached at healthcrowonline@gmail.com