Running is NOT Bad For You!!!

Don't just take my word for it...

Heart Disease and Weight Control
Dr Peter Schnohr, chief cardiologist of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, says, "The strenuous activity of jogging offers great heart benefits. It increases oxygen uptake to improve cardiac function, lowers blood pressure and increases insulin sensitivity."

Oh yeah, and...
His team calculated that runners live five to seven years longer than non-runners.

Autopsies determine that heart failure and death that come when running are usually caused by an existing heart condition that had never been discovered.

Osteoporosis
Running increases loading on the femur, boosting femoral bone mass density (BMD). And you don’t need to run daily to see results. “Among our study's runners, 47% ran eight or fewer times a month yet still had higher BMD than non-joggers,” says researcher Michael Mussolino from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Brain Power and Stress Relief
German neuroscientists from the University of Ulm found that 30 minutes jogging sessions 3 times a week significantly improved concentration and visual memory.
“The runners who had taken the six week jogging course made fewer mistakes and could complete the tests much more precisely,” says researcher Ralf Reinhardt. It’s thoughts intense exercise manufacturers new hippocampus cells and protects existing ones. A study at Oregon Health Sciences University found almost all joggers experience mental and emotional benefits from their exercise.

Joints
Sports medicine specialist, Dr. William Chan has this to say: "As a general rule of exercise, running and walking do no damage to the knees nor will it cause arthritis of the knee when you grow old. Studies done on marathon runners have shown no evidence of degeneration or arthritis of the knees as a result of long distance running."

A team of researchers from the department of immunology and rheumatology at Stanford University in southern California recently reported in the Arthritis Research and Therapy journal that adults who run consistently have 25% less musculoskeletal pain and arthritis than non-runners when they get older. Bonnie Bruce, the study author, followed more than 500 runners from a local club (called “ever runners” in the study) and 300 inactive people (“never runners”, but not necessarily sedentary) in their 50s and 60s for 14 years. Dr Bruce and her colleagues found that the “ever runners”, who ran at least six hours a week on average, experienced less joint pain by their 60s and 70s and only 35% of the joggers got arthritis (compared with 43% of non-runners).

Most knee pain that comes with running is caused by a previous knee injury.

In Conclusion...
So as you can see, runnin ain't bad, folks. (But we all know that already, don't we:) Maybe one day my nurse will stumble across this blog and gain some knowledge about the benefits of doing something great for your body.

The key is to be smart about it. Of course, not everyone is meant to be a runner...there are so many other great forms of exercise, but if you DO run, just remember to :
Wear proper shoes (and get new ones when they are worn out)
Don't push yourself on injury (listen to your body!)
Stretch
Try to get off the road and onto a softer surface once in a while
At least once a week, lift weights and do strengthening exercises

And HAVE FUN!!