Exercise and Your Health

Fateh Srajeldin N.D.*

Exercise should be a part of every individual’s daily routine. Past generations had to walk and do manual labour for almost every aspect of their daily existence. Their lifestyle alone was sufficient in providing their daily exercise. As a result of this lifestyle, these past generations gained a healthier body that was able to efficiently keep the heart muscles fit, eliminate waste and burn off excess fatty acids. In other words, they had less pain, a shorter list of diseases and (if there was no bacterial infection or unchecked spread of virulent disease), a longer life span.

Our modern civilized generation on the other hand, lives in a trapped and hurried society. Since the invention of the CAR and other modern technology, our daily exercise has reduced to a mere 5% of that of our ancestors.

This lack of exercise has caused our bodies to:

retain waste,
have a reduced ability to burn off excess fatty substances and,
has reduced the fitness of our heart’s muscles,
This will further lead us into sickness and disease not known in the past.

There are a number of reasons why everyone should exercise. Exercise is good for us for a number of reasons including:

* Burns off excess calories and boosts the body's metabolism;
* Strengthens, tones and shapes the body;
* Energizes and reduces stress and tension in the body;
* Clears the mind and elevates the mood;
* Raises the blood sugar level to normal which helps curb excessive appetite; and
* Gets toxins moving out of the body through perspiration.

Exercise should be done on a daily basis, preferably in the morning. Every day calls for its own exercise, so skipping one day and doubling up the next may lead to strain.

Since the invention of the CAR and other modern technology, our daily exercise has reduced to a mere 5% of that of our ancestors.

Some homemakers ask me if their house chores are considered exercise. Even some labourers ask me if they should be relieved from exercise, since they are on their feet all day. The answer is no. Exercise is exercise and the brain, the cells, the organs, and you yourself know it is exercise. A house chore or walking in an office is called staying in the employment force and keeping the dollars rolling in. Work has stress attached to it. The stress could be from handing an assignment in on time, pleasing your customers, pleasing your boss, being on time in the morning or keeping a bank account balanced. Exercise should relieve an existing stress and reduce future stresses, should you plan on having them.

Exercise is a very important tool that I rely on to help my patients achieve good health. Exercise is not a fad or a fashionable garment that may go out of style in the next season. Exercise is like a scale that we can use to ascertain the heart’s efficiency. The main principle of this scale is heart beats/min. The lower the heart beats per minute in a resting state, the fitter is the heart. During the first and any subsequent examinations I always take blood pressure and pulse readings. These readings are a clue to the patient’s lifestyle and possibly their diet too.

The blood that is being pumped:

* Carries oxygen from the lungs to distant tissues (every part of body);
* Carries carbon dioxide from the distant tissues to the lungs;
* Helps reduce blood’s heat;
* Carries nutrients from the intestine to the liver, and from the liver to distant tissues;
* Carries wastes and toxins from distant tissues to the liver to be detoxified, or to the kidney to be excreted.

Therefore, an efficient heart is that which beats slowly and delivers a good volume of blood with each stroke. The heart’s beats are very important and pertinent to health. Your heart rate reflects the heart’s efficiency in blood filling and emptying and consequently your total health and energy. During the first examination I tend to explore my patients’ knowledge about their heart’s performance. Usually, I converse with those who have a high resting heart rate.
“Do you know whether the heart takes time to relax or not”? I ask,
“I do not think the heart relaxes, because if it did, you would relax for good”! some patients reply.

Well, the heart does relax. Those who develop a heart condition due to diet or stress have a lifestyle that does not allow for heart relaxation. The heart normally relaxes between two beats. During the fraction of time when the heart is being filled with blood (diastole), the heart is relaxed. Once filled the heart contracts and delivers that volume into the circulation (systole). Therefore, if the heart beats efficiently (60 beats/ minute) then the heart will have enough time to relax and fill its chambers. On the other hand, a person whose heart beats are inefficiently fast (90 beats/ minute) then the heart will not have enough time to fill the total volume of its chambers and will therefore not have enough time to relax.

The rule of thumb is "The slower the heart beats, the longer your life and the higher the heart’s efficiency."

The Importance Of Exercising In The Morning

There is no possible excuse for not exercising daily. The body needs this exercise upon rising if possible. When performed early in the morning, exercises will help the body to dispose of most of the wastes that were generated over night during tissue repair. The same results will not be obtained should the same exercise be performed later in the day. The difference is that early exercise is powered by the wastes generated overnight, which helps reduce the total amount of wastes in the body, while an exercise performed later on in the day is powered by the nutrients from meals eaten before exercising. This results in little disposal of wastes.

Some of my patients have a very legitimate excuse for not being able to perform their exercises first thing in the morning, such as shift work etc. I do sympathize with them and try to accommodate, understand and try to make the situation fit their needs. I certainly do not sympathize with those who keep inventing excuses for not exercising. I recommend that my patients make it their daily habit to find the time to exercise. The idea is to perform an exercise daily to overcome the laziness stage that the body indulges in after several days without exercise.

*) Fateh Srajeldin N.D. of Toronto Canada is the director of the largest naturopathic and allergy clinic in North America.
Currently, he is treating members of the royal families and dignitaries from the Gulf region who have traveled to Canada specifically to be treated by him.