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EXERCISE
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Today, exercise is necessary as an antidote to our sedentary lifestyle. Most people are too dependent from a car for door to door transportation.
To integrate exercise into one's lifestyle, we recommend using a bicycle instead of a car for short distances and walking instead driving when possible.
In addition to introducing a more active lifestyle, we recommend some planed exercise daily. We adapt exercise prescription to each individual fitness and physical needs. Exercise tolerance must be built up slowly as people feel better and recover from inactivity. At Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center, we usually prescribe gentle walking a couple of times a day, yoga ball, weights and a rebounder exercise. In some cases, we recommend personal training sessions. And we have great surfing opportunities.
DRUG REHAB FOR SURFERS
What would be better than using your passion for surfing to get off drugs?
- There is ocean access directly across the street (at our Kapoho location). You can watch the waves or even surf right there, one minute from the house!
The house is located 2 miles from a great surfing beach on the Eastern side of Hawaii. There are also 3 other locations to choose from, all within 2 miles distance.
Click here.
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BENEFITS
The benefits of exercise are multiple.
- Exercise strengthens the immune system,
- helps to elevate moods,
- combat depression,
- combats diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease and
- is an antidote to addiction.
- Exercise will keep your body fit and your mind happy!
Need motivation to exercise? Here are seven ways exercise can improve your life — starting today!
Related articles
7 benefits of regular physical activity
Want to feel better, have more energy and perhaps even live longer? Look no further than old-fashioned exercise.
The merits of exercise — from preventing chronic health conditions to boosting confidence and self-esteem — are hard to ignore. And the benefits are yours for the taking, regardless of age, sex or physical ability. Need more convincing? Check out seven specific ways exercise can improve your life.
1. Exercise improves your mood.
Need to blow off some steam after a stressful day? A workout at the gym or a brisk 30-minute walk can help you calm down.
Exercise stimulates various brain chemicals, which may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed than you were before you worked out. You'll also look better and feel better when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem. Exercise even reduces feelings of depression and anxiety.
2. Exercise combats chronic diseases.
Worried about heart disease? Hoping to prevent osteoporosis? Regular exercise might be the ticket.
Regular exercise can help you prevent — or manage — high blood pressure. Your cholesterol will benefit, too. Regular exercise boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol while decreasing low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad," cholesterol. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly by lowering the buildup of plaques in your arteries.
And there's more. Regular exercise can help you prevent type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and certain types of cancer.
3. Exercise helps you manage your weight.
Want to drop those excess pounds? Trade some couch time for walking or other physical activities.
This one's a no-brainer. When you exercise, you burn calories. The more intensely you exercise, the more calories you burn — and the easier it is to keep your weight under control. You don't even need to set aside major chunks of time for working out. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk during your lunch break. Do jumping jacks during commercials. Better yet, turn off the TV and take a brisk walk. Dedicated workouts are great, but activity you accumulate throughout the day helps you burn calories, too.
4. Exercise strengthens your heart and lungs.
Winded by grocery shopping or household chores? Don't throw in the towel. Regular exercise can leave you breathing easier.
Exercise delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. In fact, regular exercise helps your entire cardiovascular system — the circulation of blood through your heart and blood vessels — work more efficiently. Big deal? You bet! When your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you'll have more energy to do the things you enjoy.
5. Exercise promotes better sleep.
Struggling to fall asleep? Or stay asleep? It might help to boost your physical activity during the day.
A good night's sleep can improve your concentration, productivity and mood. And, you guessed it; exercise is sometimes the key to better sleep. Regular exercise can help you fall asleep faster and deepen your sleep. The timing is up to you — but if you're having trouble sleeping, you might want to try late afternoon workouts. The natural dip in body temperature five to six hours after you exercise might help you fall asleep.
6. Exercise can put the spark back into your sex life.
Are you too tired to have sex? Or feeling too out of shape to enjoy physical intimacy? Exercise to the rescue.
Regular exercise can leave you feeling energized and looking better, which may have a positive effect on your sex life. But there's more to it than that. Exercise improves your circulation, which can lead to more satisfying sex. And men who exercise regularly are less likely to have problems with erectile dysfunction than are men who don't exercise, especially as they get older.
7. Exercise can be — gasp — fun!
Wondering what to do on a Saturday afternoon? Looking for an activity that suits the entire family? Get physical!
Exercise doesn't have to be drudgery. Take a ballroom dancing class. Check out a local climbing wall or hiking trail. Push your kids on the swings or climb with them on the jungle gym. Plan a neighborhood kickball or touch football game. Find an activity you enjoy, and go for it. If you get bored, try something new. If you're moving, it counts!
Are you convinced? Good. Start reaping the benefits of physical activity today!
FUEL FOR YOUR BRAIN
Memory glitches -- forgotten names, fuzzy details -- often are assumed to be part of the aging experience. But several years ago, researchers at the Center for Brain Health at New York University School of Medicine did a study showing that being insulin resistant, or prediabetic (having higher-than-normal blood glucose levels but not high enough to be classified as diabetic), as some 40 million Americans now are, plays an important role in the brain's ability to function in certain areas, including learning and some kinds of memory. Even better is the fact that by addressing the insulin-resistance problems, damage can be reversed.
ORIGINAL FINDINGS
The original research, released in 2002, studied 30 people between the ages of 53 and 89 who were insulin resistant but otherwise healthy. (Insulin is the hormone that regulates blood sugar or glucose, sending it to the tissue cells, among other things.) After giving the subjects glucose intravenously, the researchers administered cognitive function tests and did magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans. The result: Subjects with the poorest glucose test results -- that is, the glucose lingered in their blood rather than going to the tissues as it would normally -- also had the lowest scores in the cognitive tests. Furthermore, the hippocampus, that part of the brain that is key for recent learning and memory, was smaller than normal.
I spoke with Antonio J. Convit MD, medical director of the Center for Brain Health at New York University School of Medicine and head of the study, about this work and the follow-up research now going on. He says that while it's been known for some time that diabetes predisposes people to memory problems, his study was the first to provide evidence of a relationship between prediabetes and the brain. Assuming an adequate supply, glucose is the only fuel the brain uses -- unlike other parts of the body, which need many additional nutrients. When the study put the hippocampus to work performing cognitive tests, it needed extra fuel or glucose. But the subjects' insulin resistance prevented proper transportation of glucose to the brain and so deprived the hippocampus of the fuel it needed to do its work well. (Interestingly, in this study the hippocampus was the only part of the brain affected by the lack of glucose.)
RESEARCH UNDERWAY
Dr. Convit is continuing his study by following a number of the original subjects to evaluate how lifestyle change affects glucose and memory function. Thus far the evidence is anecdotal and it is too early for the long-range analysis, but Dr. Convit happily shares what he has found to date. He says he gave these people what he calls his wrath-of-God speech concerning the health risks they were incurring. Following this wake-up call, a number of them corrected their harmful habits. Those who lost their excess weight and started exercising regularly are having what he terms vastly different results in their tests. They are no longer prediabetic... and their memories have improved, as have their other physical markers, such as cholesterol levels. On the other hand, the subjects who failed to improve their diet and exercise regimen are getting worse in the same areas, he says.
THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR
The final results of the new study won't be ready for another six months, but Dr. Convit says the take-home message is absolutely unambiguous. If you want your brain to work well, eat a diet that contributes to weight control and good health, and exercise regularly.
In fact, exercise is turning out to be a much more critical element than previously thought for contributing to strong brain and insulin functions. In a study with mice, researchers were able to stimulate the essential neurological factors that help create new brain cells. They did this by getting the mice to exercise regularly, and although this was a mouse study, Dr. Convit says there is no reason to think it wouldn't be applicable to humans.
EXERCISE STRATEGY
Exercise also helps regulate glucose because it increases insulin sensitivity. This is particularly true of any exercise that increases muscle mass, including Pilates and strength or weight training. Dr. Convit says that the best exercise package of all is to do both weight-resistant work and aerobic activities -- and you don't need to do massive amounts. Thirty minutes a day of brisk walking most days will do. At the very least, regular walks, adding steps into your day and climbing stairs whenever possible is sufficient if that is all you can manage.
Dr. Convit also urges anyone who might be prediabetic to be tested. The test is not difficult, but it does take time. You start with a fasting glucose test (a blood test first thing in the morning before eating) and then drink a high-glucose liquid. Two hours later, you will have another blood test that will show how effective your insulin is in getting glucose into the tissues. Symptoms of prediabetes include elevated blood pressure, large waist circumference (35 inches or more for women, 40 inches or more for men), elevated triglycerides, a low HDL (the "good" cholesterol) count (below 41 mg/dl) and an elevated blood sugar level. If you have three or more of these symptoms, you are considered likely to be prediabetic. For more details on prediabetes and what it can mean to your overall health, see Daily Health News, September 21, 2004.
We all think that our nutrition is complete when we leave the table -- but that is just the start of the feeding process. We must put the right foods into a well-functioning body. Exercise is step one... followed closely by proper nutrition and assistance in getting a prediabetic condition under control.
Using your passion for SURFING to recover - in Hawaii
Our program FREEDOM FROM ALL ADDICTIONS
Our methods and modalities
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HAWAII NATURAL DRUG REHABILITATION
& RAW DETOXIFICATION RETREAT
Holistic Natural Residential Rehabilitation Programs for freedom from addiction to legal and illegal substances -
drawing from Naturopathic and Detoxification medicine, Behavioral and Psychodynamic therapy approaches, Meditation, Yoga and Spiritual practices.
Note: We take only a small amount of clients, and our programs are individually designed. Our use of the ocean, the recreational activities & natural approaches facilitate recovery.
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ADDICTION RECOVERY
- COCAINE -
I had been doing drugs heavily for 16 years and no rehab or therapist could change me.
I was too full of toxins for the twelve-step program to ever work on me. I needed to clean my body out so that I could feel normal enough to fight the desire to do drugs.
Dr Balyac awakened me.
I have remained cocaine free now for 2 years (2008)....
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