The comprehensive effects of exercise on all organs: from sleep to fat storage

One of the effects of exercise on the brain is that it alters sleep patterns. A healthy person's sleep is mostly deep sleep, specifically stage four sleep, which is crucial for restoring energy. Healthy individuals and wild animals can achieve sufficient rest after several hours of deep sleep. You may recall waking up some mornings feeling like you haven't slept enough, even after seven or eight hours in bed. This is because that sleep hasn't fully rejuvenated you. In other words, sleep is phased, and one way exercise alleviates fatigue is by making it easier to enter a deep sleep state after exercise, allowing for sufficient rest and energy recovery. Conversely, tired people often experience fragmented sleep, frequently waking up in the middle of the night and finding it difficult to fall back asleep. Regular, long-term exercise can help them enter a deep sleep state more quickly.

The effects of aerobic exercise on the function of every tissue in the body: appetite, sleep

Stress, pain

mind

Heart blood

Cardiac hypertrophy and high/low density lipoprotein triglycerides

Heart rate anemia

Capillary action increases high-density lipoprotein levels

blood pressure

pulse

skeleton

Osteoporosis

Pancreatic musculoskeletal system

Insulin deficiency, diabetes, hypoglycemia, capillary action

Tissue regeneration

Disease resistance

Fat metabolism

Muscle firmness

Sensory nerves

lung

Emphysema

Cystic fibrosis asthma

Fat storage, fat breakdown, fat production

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Hunger can also be affected by exercise. When healthy people run, fat cells release fatty acids, making the blood more acidic, which reduces hunger. On the other hand, exercise can lower blood sugar in obese individuals, increasing feelings of hunger. Appetite is controlled by the subconscious level of the brain, not the conscious level. When the body is very healthy, its physiological processes can also influence conscious emotional activity.

Another effect of exercise on the brain is that it stimulates the release of anesthetic substances that can alleviate pain. Everyone reacts differently to painkillers, making the exact process difficult to pinpoint, but the anesthetic substances released during exercise can indeed reduce pain associated with premenstrual syndrome, cramps, and stress.

Regarding the lungs, we've found that exercise also has a significant impact on cystic fibrosis, a view that has intrigued many doctors. However, cystic fibrosis of the lungs can lead to scarring, which is a drawback. To my knowledge, no medication or treatment can effectively slow down the scarring process induced by exercise. The most significant impact is on the respiratory system, such as the bronchi. In healthy individuals, the trachea is widened, resulting in a clearer airway. During wheezing, if there are improper muscles around the bronchi, it can cause bronchospasm. I'm not saying that exercise can cure asthma, but rather that it has a beneficial therapeutic effect on improper muscles in asthma patients.

Next is fat storage, that is, where fat cells accumulate. The changes in fat cells caused by exercise are the opposite of those caused by fasting. If you reduce fat cells through fasting, it often has the opposite effect, possibly only leading to rapid fat accumulation. Conversely, the fat-burning effect is enhanced with regular exercise. Given these many changes in fat cells, how can a doctor who sincerely wants to help obese people lose weight not promote "exercise therapy"? How can they only tell dieters that "their metabolism is slow" without explaining that "exercise is the way to increase metabolism" or "why your fat cell function makes you prone to obesity"? Every living cell has its own function; the exact number is not important, but how they function is.

Muscles are particularly responsive to movement. For you, this means your thighs, hips, and overall muscle definition are more refined. For professional athletes, changes in muscle shape indicate stronger receptors in the body, allowing them to better control their internal senses. This enables figure skaters to perform incredible tricks and boxers to accurately predict the distance their punches should travel. For your doctor, changes in muscle shape indicate an increased number of capillaries, which lowers blood pressure. A woman who is not overweight typically has about 32% muscle mass. Imagine how much less work your heart would have if 32% of your body had better blood flow. Changes in capillary count and blood pressure also affect your body temperature and wound healing speed-obviously factors your doctor is most interested in.

Exercise can even affect the pancreas, though not directly, because when we eat sweets or any carbohydrates, the pancreas secretes insulin. In lean people, the blood only needs to process the small amount of glucose present in the blood produced by carbohydrates. If you have a family history of diabetes, you still need to stay slim so that the demand for insulin is not too high.

The pancreas also secretes glycogenolysis factors, which release glucose from the liver when blood sugar levels drop. Because lean individuals use fat as fuel, their blood sugar is less likely to drop (hypoglycemia), thus reducing their need for glycogenolysis factors secreted by the pancreas. I've simplified these complex relationships considerably; I can assure you that endocrinologists know far more than I do, but even they wouldn't dare exclude exercise from their considerations.

Blood can also show dramatic positive changes caused by exercise, one of the most surprising changes being in cholesterol. There are two types of cholesterol: high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). HDL is considered a "safer" form of cholesterol because it is less likely to adhere to the arterial walls and may even reduce cholesterol buildup.

Ideally, at least 25% of cholesterol in the blood should be in the form of high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Premenopausal women and those who sit for long periods have an average HDL level of 31%, but this advantage disappears after menstruation ceases. This is why older women have a higher risk of coronary artery disease than men. Exercise doesn't seem to lower the "total" amount of cholesterol in the blood; instead, it increases the level of benign HDL and reduces the level of bad LDL. Women who have undergone endurance training have an average HDL level of 39%. Even though the only benefit of aerobic exercise is improving the ratio of HDL to LDL, it's worth discussing with your doctor how to approach this type of exercise.

Aerobic exercise can actually help prevent blood clots. For people whose blood vessels are already diseased and partially blocked by accumulated fatty cholesterol, the likelihood of developing thrombosis (blood clots forming in the deep arteries of the legs) is quite high. If these blood clots break off and loosen, they may flow to the lungs (causing a pulmonary embolism), or the heart (causing a myocardial infarction), or the brain (causing a cerebral hemorrhage), and sudden death is often the final result.

Cellulose is a protein in the blood that is responsible for making gel-like fibers that keep blood clots in their solid structure. But what can prevent cellulose from clumping together into a large ball? The answer is an enzyme called histoplasminogen activator (HLA), produced inside blood vessels, which helps clear away the gel-like fibers. Activity stimulates the production of HLA, while inactivity reduces its production. If you are obese, you won't produce enough HLA; only by maintaining a lean physique can you produce sufficient amounts of this enzyme.

Exercise also helps prevent blood clots in another way. Slender people have more plasma, the liquid portion of blood. Increased plasma content means the blood isn't too thick, allowing it to flow more smoothly through the blood vessels. This thinner blood is less likely to clot. If blood proteins (especially fibrin) are diluted, the chances of clots are reduced. Sedentary people have thicker blood, making them more prone to clots. Even those who don't exercise regularly are willing to start exercising occasionally because they know it's too late to remedy problems once they develop. While the fact that arteriosclerosis caused by fat deposits is likely unchangeable, it's never too late to try to avoid or significantly slow the formation of obstructive blood clots that could lead to heart disease or cerebral hemorrhage.

Exercise causes many changes to the heart, some of which are well-known, such as an enlarged heart, a condition known as "cardiac hypertrophy." Before athletes were studied so extensively, doctors often found enlarged hearts in patients with passive heart failure. In these cases, cardiac hypertrophy was a bad sign, and more than one doctor mistook the enlarged hearts in athletes for pathological cardiac hypertrophy. For a long-distance runner, an enlarged heart is a basic requirement and an advantage that increases blood flow; in addition, athletes have more capillaries in their heart muscle, which can reduce the risk of heart disease.

Although the many health benefits of exercise have been simplified, they are still impressive, and new benefits are constantly being discovered through research. Exercise is a miraculous medicine of the century, an elixir of life. The positive effects of exercise on the body's organs far surpass any invented medicine or treatment prescription. If your doctor doesn't exercise himself or encourages you to exercise, then he has clearly overlooked a viable, optimal medical prescription.