“We need to walk more in the fresh air!”. Any doctor, among others, will give you such a recommendation, regardless of the reason for which you turned to him. If you get sick, walks in the acute phase for some time can be replaced by adequate ventilation of the room: fresh air provides oxygen, activates the protective processes in the body and helps to recover faster.
Speaking of disease prevention, it is difficult to find a more effective means than walking in the fresh air. If you want, this is the same magic pill, which, when used wisely, has no contraindications, side effects and is not dangerous to overdose.
Walk on health
It is reliably known that one of the factors that aggravates the risk of developing non-communicable diseases in a modern person is physical inactivity. Accordingly, adequate motor activity reduces this risk to nothing. It has been estimated that in order to stay healthy, you need to take at least 10,000 steps every day. If the weather is bad, just buy women’s rain jackets and enjoy comfortable walks. Short dashes between home, work and the store do not find such a quantity. Therefore, purposeful and conscious walks in the fresh air are the only right decision. Many scientists and doctors at the same time suggest not to get hung up on the number of steps. The main thing in walks is their regularity and duration: daily and at least half an hour, gradually increasing the duration to the optimal 1-2 hours a day.
The health benefits of regular outdoor walks are not long in coming (and some will show up immediately):
First of all, walking helps to calm down and relax, get rid of stress and negative emotions. The fact is that in the fresh air, brain cells are more actively supplied with oxygen, which in turn helps to stabilize the activity of the nervous system. It is not for nothing that a person who is very excited or excited is offered to “breathe” as a sedative. The ability to get rid of emotional and psychological slag in time, which is fully provided by daily walks in the fresh air, is an excellent prevention of the development of chronic stress and depression. Evening walks help get rid of insomnia and make sleep stronger.
Aerobic exercise (which, for a moment, primarily includes banal brisk walking) is extremely effective for strengthening the heart muscle. In other words, the pleasure of walking is fully combined with the benefits for the cardiovascular system: breathing and heart rate even out, blood pressure normalizes. Thanks to such unpretentious “workouts” as regular walks in the fresh air, the heart becomes more resilient and less at risk of failing.
The benefits of walking are also undeniable in relation to the health of the spine and the entire bone frame. Walking trains and strengthens the muscles and ligaments that support the bone frame, as well as the joints. Thanks to regular walks, you can get rid of back pain, improve coordination and flexibility, and strengthen bone tissue. And this is a sure way to protect yourself from acquired flat feet or osteoporosis in the future.
Adequate saturation of cells with oxygen activates metabolic processes in the body, speeds up metabolism. It has been proven that long walks in the fresh air, combined with a balanced diet, really help to keep your figure in good shape and forget about overweight and obesity forever. In addition, walking helps maintain normal blood glucose levels. Therefore, walking can be considered, among other things, as a method of preventing diabetes.
A lot of walking is simply required for those who have a sedentary job or a sedentary lifestyle. At least in order to prevent stagnation of blood in the pelvic organs and thus provoke prostatitis or hemorrhoids. Daily walks of 30 minutes or more are enough to avoid many below the belt problems.
Ophthalmologists are also unanimously in favor of outdoor walks. In the era of electronic gadgets, the eyes are in constant long-term stress, for which you have to pay, at best, with a loss of visual acuity. To prevent this from happening, doctors recommend periodically switching from gadgets to other activities. But the best way to help relieve eye strain, and therefore protect them from the negative effects of electronic devices, is to walk in the fresh air. Oxygen even in this case can work wonders.
Of course, these are far from all the health benefits that can be obtained simply by walking in the fresh air – not occasionally, but every day for at least half an hour a day. The benefits of walking for strengthening general immunity, preventing vitamin D deficiency, reducing the risk of mental disorders, increasing cognitive functions and performance, preventing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and many other pathologies and conditions should not be underestimated. The only one thing – you need to use the “universal medicine” wisely.