Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
WHY IS EXERCISE SO IMPORTANT?
We all know that vegetables are good for us, but just because they are doesn't mean we will eat them. In a similar way we all know that exercise is good for us and has many health benefits, but for the vast majority of Americans, it suffers the very same fate as the vegetables.
Some of us have learned that we can enhance the spinach or kale and this turns it from boring and distasteful into a much more satisfying and enjoyable experience. Likewise with exercise, some of us have learned that exercise is not just enjoyable and great fun — it can even be addictive. To simplify this, let's say there are just two groups of people: the small minority who love exercise and probably do more than enough, and the vast majority who don't exercise enough. The challenge we face, and it is a very substantial one, is to find ways to get increasing numbers to convert from the majority to the minority, so that in time the minority can become the majority.
Why are exercise lovers such a small minority? How have we arrived at this point? Why do so many Americans love sports and yet see exercise as a waste of their time? Or if they do exercise, why is it often seen as a chore they want to get out of the way as quickly as possible?
My Journey to the USA
Initially when I came to the USA in 2003, I was on a mission to set up a new business in the triathlon field. When I was younger I played many different sports, though rugby was always my first choice. As I moved into my late twenties, I knew I could not continue playing rugby forever so I decided to transition to running to stay in good shape. As time passed, it became my new first choice of exercise, though rugby is still the sport I love the most. As my passion for running intensified, I completed a few marathons during the eighties, but unfortunately for me they took their toll on my body, especially on my lower back. This was a weak spot after a few injuries I had gotten while playing rugby.
In the nineties, triathlons became my passion. What I love about the sport of triathlon is the variety of activity — swimming, cycling and running. While it is definitely a challenge, it is a realistic one. Best of all, unlike many other "adult" sports, such as tennis or golf, no specialized talent is required (although, of course, you do have to be able to swim, bike and run). Hard work and the will to succeed are necessary, but thankfully for me these were not an issue.
After researching triathlon business opportunities, I decided to set up a retail store in Mount Pleasant, SC. Mount Pleasant is a beautiful town with a population of 72,000 just north of Downtown Charleston, across the Cooper River. I was definitely on a mission to convert people to the sport of triathlon but I recognized quite early on that by itself it was not a viable business.
I set up TrySports in November of 2003 and we opened for business in February 2004 with the emphasis on encouraging the folks of Mount Pleasant and Charleston to "Try" the aerobic activities of walking, running, cycling, swimming and fitness, as well as triathlon.
Healthy Charleston Challenge
At TrySports, we played a proactive role in the fitness and health of our communities from the very beginning. We got involved in many local events and one of those was the Healthy Charleston Challenge. This event is organized twice yearly by the Wellness Center at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), and is often described as Charleston's version of the popular "Biggest Loser" television show.
My involvement as a speaker there had a profound influence on my future, as you will discover throughout this book. At the Wellness Center, they create programs that help change the way people live their lives and the Challenge is a chronic disease prevention program that deals with overweight and obesity. My involvement with the Challenge really opened my eyes from three different perspectives.
First — that we have some major health problems in America.
Second — that we can actually do something about them and
Third — that we are not doing enough to resolve some of these major health problems.
Health of the Nation
My concern for the "Health of the Nation" has grown exponentially during the eleven years I have been living in the USA to the point that today I believe we have some critically serious health problems. What makes the situation even worse is that the problem continues to deteriorate because we are not taking it seriously enough.
I believe there is much we can do to solve the problem. I decided to call this section the "Health of the Nation" because I started writing it around the time of the annual State of the Union address by the president. As in all previous years, since I came to the USA, the address covered all the usual territory from the debt ceiling to terrorism to healthcare. But, in referring to healthcare, it failed to mention some of the greatest threats of all. For me these are not party political issues. However, since I have come to the USA, I don't think the address has ever mentioned these issues.
So I am going to address three major health problems (well four, actually) which are rightly referred to as EPIDEMICS! These epidemics refer to the United States but in truth, we have a world-wide pandemic.
Epidemic No. 1: Obesity
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009–2010 shows that some 36%, or more than one-third of adults aged twenty and over, are obese. Obesity prevalence did not differ much between men and women, but adults aged sixty and over were more likely to be obese than younger adults.
Some 17% of young people under twenty are also obese but of even greater significance is that this is triple the rate of just one generation ago. When I look back to when I went to school in the sixties and early seventies, you could count the number of overweight kids, never mind obese, on one hand. At most, one guy in my class of about a hundred males would have been considered overweight but even he was very active and played rugby; in fact, he was one of the best players in my school. It is interesting how times have changed but as I was growing up, an overweight person had some kind of health problem that was outside of his control; no one would consciously choose to be overweight, let alone obese.
Like all statistical information, the figures to which I refer above are out of date by the time they get to the people. It begs the question — has the situation gotten better or worse? Unfortunately, I believe the answer is almost certainly a negative one.
While obesity is very serious, we should be just as concerned about overweight trends.
Some 70% of Americans are now considered either overweight or obese. To me, this is an astonishing statistic and like all the others, it is trending the wrong way. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what will happen as the American population ages.
Definition of Overweight and Obese
Overweight and obese are labels for the ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. The terms also identify ranges of weight that have been shown to increase the likelihood of certain diseases and other health problems. For adults, overweight and obese ranges are determined by using weight and height to calculate a number call the "Body Mass Index" or BMI for short. BMI is used because for most people, it correlates with their amount of body fat.
An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight.
An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.
Warning: While BMI provides an easy way to measure overweight and obesity, many question its accuracy and usefulness, so it should only be used as a guide.
Epidemic No. 2: Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is closely linked to overweight and obesity. This country has seen the number of people diagnosed with diabetes rise from 1.5 million in 1958 to 18.8 million in 2010. You can measure that increase whatever way you want, 12.5 times or 1253%, but one way or another it is an increase of epidemic proportions.
Today the National Diabetes Education Program reports that some twenty-six million Americans have diabetes. What is especially scary is that some seven million of these do not know they have the disease. Perhaps even more alarming is that it is estimated that eighty million adults aged twenty and older are considered pre-diabetic. Pre-diabetes is a condition where blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be called diabetic.
One of my favorite authors is health expert Mark Hyman, who refers to the "Diabesity Epidemic" which combines both the obesity and diabetes epidemics into one term. It is a more comprehensive way to describe the continuum from optimal blood sugar balance toward insulin resistance and full blown diabetes. Unfortunately, most of the eighty million people with pre-diabetes are well on their way to having the single biggest chronic disease in America. Pre-diabetes is simply a precursor to full-blown type 2 diabetes and carries all the same risks. It is a bit like cancer or heart disease in its early stages. So one out of every four Americans are already on this path and the numbers are getting worse!
Combined with smoking, "diabesity" causes nearly all the major health problems of the twenty-first century, including heart disease, stroke, dementia and cancer. I have to practically slap myself every time I see these numbers because to me they are hard to believe. They are scandalous, catastrophic and I don't use those words lightly! In fact, these numbers are so terrible that it is clear to me that our leaders and our people just simply do not understand the extent of the diabesity epidemic nor the implications for our future.
Epidemic No. 3: Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia are so closely linked to obesity and diabetes that they are increasingly referred to as Type 3 Diabetes.
It is very difficult to label one epidemic as worse than another but in my book, if you could, the Alzheimer's epidemic would fit the bill. I don't feel that way simply because I am pushing on in years, either. Alzheimer's disease starts some thirty years before the first symptoms show! When I heard about this recently and then combined it with the problems of obesity and diabetes, I realized that we truly have a HUGE health problem looming in our relatively near future.
According to the Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's disease is now officially an epidemic in the United States. More than five million Americans have Alzheimer's today but alarmingly, though not surprisingly, based on what I revealed in the last paragraph, this total is expected to triple by 2050. Unfortunately, I have a big fear that this figure could be a lot worse unless we start to take serious proactive steps immediately.
According to Dr. Daniel Amen, another of my favorite authors and one of the world's leading authorities on the subject, "this is an illness you do not want to get". I am so concerned about the potential dangers of Alzheimer's that I have devoted Chapter 18 to the subject. However, don't wait for the Cavalry to arrive — take action yourself and get on a prevention program today!
Epidemic No. 4: The Inactivity Epidemic
The evidence supporting the health benefits of exercise is overwhelming. Regular exercise fundamentally changes your physiology including your musculoskeletal, circulatory, respiratory and nervous systems. This results in many positive health outcomes which are detailed later in Part 2 of this book. Exercise also has a profoundly positive effect on your ability to lose and then maintain your weight.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of the benefits, the vast majority of Americans do not exercise enough. I believe that this is this fourth hidden epidemic which is in large part responsible for the other three: Obesity, Diabetes and Alzheimer's. I call this silent killer the "Inactivity Epidemic".
There are some serious risks associated with inactivity. Weight loss without exercise is very difficult to achieve and dieting will also negatively affect both your aerobic capacity and strength as your muscle mass reduces. In other words, it is impossible to maintain a healthy weight without exercise.
Research also shows that it is better to be overweight and exercise than to be normal weight and inactive. To put this another way, you can exercise and still be unhealthy but you simply cannot be healthy without exercise!
Reframe the Dialogue
Perhaps worst of all, inactivity seriously reduces your life expectancy. I believe that the risks of inactivity are not getting the attention they deserve. My use of the term "Inactivity Epidemic" may appear somewhat alarmist at first but when you consider what I have already said in this chapter and what I am going to say in the rest of Part 1, I hope you will agree with me that reframing the dialogue about inactivity and exercise is badly needed.
[??] Your "To Do" List
1. Simply recognize that as a nation we have some major health problems.
2. Ask yourself if you are part of the majority of Americans who do not exercise enough.
3. Acknowledge the importance of exercise; you cannot be healthy without it!
"The average American takes many years to get out of condition but expects to get back in condition in a few weeks; it's not going to happen!"—Jim Kirwan
CHAPTER 2
THE VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS DO NOT EXERCISE ENOUGH
I believe that the vast majority of Americans do not exercise enough but I don't expect you to just accept my view without explaining why I believe this. According to the last reported figures in 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that some 52% of Americans do not exercise enough. Of these, 13.5% are inactive and the remainder do less than the recommended level. However, I believe the real figures are a lot worse because the recommended level to which they refer is too low!
To validate my hypothesis we need to have a good understanding of what enough exercise is. So we need to answer this important question:
How much exercise is enough?
There are many different views about how long you should spend exercising and they are related to a second question — what kind or type of exercise should you do? I will give you very specific answers to both questions in Part 2, but for now let me address the general question of — how much exercise is enough?
Some current views are confusing, some are misleading and I hate to say it, but some are just plain wrong. Therefore, I believe you are entitled to get logical, easy to understand answers to the above question which are supported by scientific research. To help me do this I will refer, in turn, to three important sources as follows:
• The Official American View
• The Rest of the World View
• Great News from a Major Research Study
The Official American View
In 2008, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans were published. There is a general lack of familiarity among the folks about these Guidelines, which reinforces my belief that exercise is not getting the attention it deserves. Have you ever heard of the Guidelines or could you provide a quick summary of their key recommendations? Except for those who need to be familiar with the Guidelines as part of their job, I have never met anyone — not a single person — who could summarize their key messages.
The Guidelines were produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, based on a report submitted by the physical activity guidelines advisory committee, a group comprised of thirteen leading experts in the field of exercise science and public health. The Guidelines very clearly tell Americans that physical activity should be seen as an essential part of their lives:
"We know that sedentary behavior contributes to a host of chronic diseases and regular physical activity is an important component of an overall healthy lifestyle. There is strong evidence that physically active people have better health-related physical fitness and are at lower risk of developing many disabling medical conditions than inactive people."
According to the report, the Guidelines were developed because we clearly know enough to recommend that all Americans should engage in regular physical activity to improve overall health and to reduce the risk of many health problems. While the primary target audience was policymakers and health professionals, I believe the Guidelines should be readily available to all. If you have time, I encourage you to read the full Guidelines report.
The main idea behind the Guidelines is that regular physical activity, over months and years, can produce long-term health benefits. They very clearly state that being inactive or sedentary is unhealthy. The biggest take-away from the Guidelines is that the more exercise you do, the greater your health benefits will be.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Exercise Factor"
by .
Copyright © 2015 JIM KIRWAN.
Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
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