MADRID, 11 June. (EDITIONS) –
According to Harvard Medical School professor I-Mi Lee, there are activities that have been shown to be especially beneficial for people’s health for various reasons: they improve balance and flexibility, strengthen bones, keep weight under control, protect joints, and even improve memory performance.
This is how Dr. Inmaculata De Vivo, Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard Medical School of Public Health, and one of the world’s leading experts in the area, especially in cancer genetic research, describes it in an interview with Infosalus.
On the occasion of the publication of ‘Biology of Gentleness’ (Diana) — together with Daniel Lumera (expert in wellness sciences) — tells us that physical activity is a way to “prevent” telomeres from shortening. These are DNA structures located at the ends of the chromosomes and their function is to protect them from possible damage and to keep the genetic material of the cell intact.
The first sport that he considers beneficial in this regard is swimming, “the perfect sports discipline” since, as he argues, floating relieves the load on the joints, especially if they are sore, at the same time that it favors fluid movement without jerks. .
“It is an aerobic exercise, which means that it improves lung capacity and the functions of the cardiovascular system, and it has a particularly positive effect on mood, which helps to strengthen mental well-being, while being very useful for toning up and burn calories,” he describes.
On the other hand, De Vivo points to Tai-chi, an oriental discipline, and where the connection between mind and body is accentuated, creating a particularly effective state of concentration, as he acknowledges. “Combine action with relaxation. It’s meditation in motion,” says this expert.
It consists, as detailed, in a series of elegant and controlled movements with a smooth and gradual transition from one position to the next. It offers “great benefits”, especially for the elderly, since improving balance reduces the risk of falls or difficulties walking, the doctor points out.
In turn, this specialist from Harvard Medical School defends the need to practice strength exercises, which are done by lifting weights and using ‘fitness’ machines if you go to the gym. “Medium-intensity training has the merit of increasing muscle strength and tone without transforming the body, while giving it an appearance of health and vigour. Muscles require large amounts of energy, even at rest, so have the important function of helping us burn calories”, defends De Vivo.
In addition, it maintains that the greater the muscle mass, the greater the amount of calories burned, which helps us maintain a healthy weight and not accumulate fat. It also contributes to alleviating pathological conditions or age-related ailments, and for example, he cites that strength training has proven effective in relieving knee pain caused by osteoarthritis, improving balance and preventing falls, increasing bone density and reduce the risk of fractures and improve the quality of sleep.
Of course, it is advisable to carry out this type of training always guided by an expert monitor, at least at the beginning, to learn the correct execution of the exercises and avoid injuries.
“We found that brisk walking greater than or equal to 150 minutes per week would have a biological advantage associated with 4.4 less years of biological aging compared to non-walkers,” stresses De Vivo, while specifying that scientific studies have shown that walking, even just three hours a week, has a health impact comparable to shorter, but much more intense workouts.
Helps keep weight under control while lowering bad or LDL cholesterol levels and increasing good or HDL cholesterol levels, strengthens bones, lowers blood pressure, improves mood, and lowers the risk of various chronic diseases.
Of course, De Vivo points out that, for those who start practicing sports, there is no single recipe for everyone, but the key to success is that we feel pleasure when doing it and feel well-being when doing it.
In fact, it reflects that activities that are not purely sporting can offer important benefits such as going up or down stairs twice instead of once, walking in place, lifting your legs or doing light weights during commercial breaks on television, playing hide-and-seek with the grandchildren, parking the car in the place farthest from the shopping, vacuuming and cleaning the house, doing the garden, or standing and walking while talking on the phone.
