Top Five Reasons to Exercise If You Have a Chronic Illness

The pain and ache of chronic illness such as arthritis, lupus, or fibromyalgia can stop a person cold on track at times. Besides taking medication to control this chronic illness, you have to make it a priority to exercise daily. Medicine alone is not enough. Your joints and muscles need to develop strength and endurance.

Here is a list of five wonderful reasons why you have to exercise as chronic illness suffers.

Exercise helps arthritis and diabetes

The same inflammatory chemicals that relate to rheumatoid arthritis and lupus can block insulin receptors which lead to diabetes.

When you exercise, you use insulin and glucose in your body, not storing them. Strengthen exercises keep muscle strong, and give you more stability. Stretching eases joints stiffness, and maintains motion.

Exercise improves heart health, and stamina

Your heart is most vital organ in your body, so to keep it happy and healthy; exercise has to be a part of your life.

Inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis, can increase the risk of heart disease, because inflammation that affects the joints also affects the arteries. Keeping active makes blood circulating, brings down blood pressure, boosts up endurance, and improves cardiovascular health.

Exercise gives you more energy and keeps you young

Researchers cannot pinpoint to what causes aging, but they know that inflammatory is certainly a factor in it. Your cells produce less inflammatory chemicals when you are physically active.

Exercise helps stave off the aging process.

Exercise cuts calories and keeps you active

We think of exercise as wanting to lose weight, and cutting calories, but exercise goes beyond this common concept. It is a part of staying healthy and living longer.

Exercise can jump start your metabolism, increase your activities level, and reduce inflammation. It is a win-win situation to cut calories and keeps active with daily exercises.

Exercise provides a wide range of other benefits

Besides having more fun, exercise can help you sleep better, improve your sex life, enhance mental focus, and increase self-esteem. Added bonuses are: improving immune system and mood swings.

The list of benefits outweighs the time you take to do exercise. It goes beyond the calories counting. If you are suffering from chronic illness such as arthritis, exercise can lower the risk of other related conditions and ease pain.

Look into a program that offers a well-rounded work-out, such as aerobic or cardiovascular exercises, strengthening or resistance exercises, and flexibility or stretching exercises.