Ditch the Drink
Try to cut down on alcohol consumption? Exercise can help there too. Scientists at Loughborough University divided 60 participants into three groups to test out circuit training (five minutes) and distraction ( colouring in a picture book for five minutes) techniques.
They found those in the exercise group had significantly reduced alcohol cravings whereas those in the distraction group did not significantly reduce cravings a more than the control group
Live Longer
Physical activity may play a bigger part than genes in determining how long you live. That was the finding of scientists at the University of California based on studying the activities of more than 5000 women aged 63 and over since 2012. An author of the study said “Even if you aren’t likely to live long based on your genes you can still extend your life span by engaging positive lifestyle behaviours such as regular exercise and sitting less”
Fight Covid
Exercise can even protect you against Covid. A review by scientists at the university of Valencia of 16 studies compromising 1.8 million adults found that those who did regular physical activity had an 11% lower risk of infection, a 44% lower risk of serious illness and a 43% lower risk of death than their inactive counterparts. Doing 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of intense activity was found to be more effective in this regard.
Bigger Brain
Researchers at the German centre for neurodegenerative disease use brain imaging and surveys from more than 2500 volunteers to try to learn more about the relationship between the brain and exercise. They found physical activity had a noticeable effect on all brain regions investigating and that the higher and more intensive physical activity the larger the brain regions were either with regard to volume cortical thickness.