Your body is like an intricate mechanical machine. You need to feed it the highest quality ‘oil’ so I will be talking about healthy diets in a future blog. You also need to move the various parts otherwise they become rusty and, in extreme cases, seize up.

As you age, you need to maintain strength and flexibility with moderate, regular exercise. Research has shown that it is beneficial to carry out strength training. You don’t have to join a gym but using steps in your own home, step up and down and use weights to strengthen you arms and upper body. I have demonstrations of exercises in my book ‘Look Better, Feel Better, Live Better.’ I particularly like the ‘Rebounder’ (a mini trampoline) which gives you an impact workout without the skeletal shock. Weight bearing exercise is very important to prevent osteoporosis.

Flexibility (the range of movement of a joint) increases with training and decreases with inactivity. Yoga is a good example of stretching, keeping the body flexible, and a simple routine can be found in ‘Look Better, Feel Better, Live Better’ under the exercise section.

Of course before you start any form of exercise it is important to have a medical check to make sure the exercise is appropriate for you.

But there are certain medical conditions where it is extremely beneficial to exercise. Ankylosing Spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory arthritis. The spine has less movement with calcification of the bone leading sometimes to fusion of the individual joints. A physiotherapist is the professional to work out an exercise programme which is both appropriate and beneficial in maintaining muscular strength. By improving flexibility it may be possible to prevent some of the spinal deformity which is characteristic of the disease.
For any type of arthritis, hydrotherapy (using warm water) assists easier movement with pain and a greater degree of flexibility.

Exercise prevents heart disease. By exercising aerobically, in other words increasing your heart beat, you improve cardiac output. This means that the amount of blood pumped by the heart per minute increases and improves the use of oxygen by the body. Exercising regularly keeps your weight down and helps improve the HDL levels ( the healthy component of cholesterol). High cholesterol levels and obesity are two major risk factors for heart disease.

If you have heart disease then again it is important (after having a medical check) to perform appropriate exercise. There are rehabilitation programmes available after hospital operations that allow you to start with low intensity workouts building up to 30-45 minutes of moderate-intensity several times a week.

Diabetics are afforded a wonderful chance to improve their body’s sensitivity to insulin and help to reverse insulin resistance by regular physical activity.
There are 2 types of diabetes. Type 1 where you use insulin injections and Type 2 which generally occurs later in life and initially can be treated with diet and possibly tablets. Exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
If you have diabetes then it is recommended that you exercise with someone who is familiar with your condition. Diabetics can experience hypoglycaemia. This is where glucose levels drop markedly in the body and they experience a cold sweat, become faint and can lose consciousness. Always drink plenty of fluids, before during and after exercise and avoid overheating.

So, exercise can prevent many of the ageing conditions as well as being beneficial if you have any of the diseases. Pick one exercise and start doing it today-better for your health and makes you feel good too.