National Walk to Work Day

April 4, 2014

2919325183_18910d9362_oThere are many benefits to a regular walking routine…let me count the ways:

  • Reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes
  • Weight loss
  • Reduced depression
  • Stress relief
  • Reduced osteoporosis risk

Getting 30 minutes of moderate exercise everyday protects against cancer.  This happens in a couple of ways. One of these is that it improves hormone balance. By making your body’s cells more sensitive to insulin, this allows blood sugar to leave the blood stream and enter the cells.

This is particularly important for cancers that have insulin receptors. Cancer types known to have insulin receptors include breast, colon, glioblastoma, lung, endometrial and prostrate. This means that these cancers can be stimulated by insulin.

Let me walk you through this chain of events:

  • You eat sugar or some carbohydrate that will be broken down into sugar by your digestive system.
  • The sugar, in the form of glucose crosses the membrane of the small intestines and enters the blood stream.
  • This signals the pancreas to produce insulin.
  • The insulin acts like a key – it finds the keyhole on the cell, opens the door and lets the glucose enter the cell where it is used for energy.
  • Once it enters the cell, the blood sugar levels reduces and the signal to the pancreas to release insulin is turned down.
  • When insulin resistance exists – they key can’t find the keyhole. This means that blood sugar remains high. This signals the pancreas to continue to release insulin into the blood stream.
  • With more insulin circulating in the blood steam, some of that can find it’s way to keyholes (receptors) on cancer cells and inadvertently stimulate cancer growth.

How Do I Prevent This?

Exercise. This can be as simple as going for a walk after meals. The walk makes the cells more receptive to the insulin.

Celebrate National Walk to Work day and keep it up for years to come!

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