Life Fitness Equipment Feel happy – Be healthy

Everybody sings a little sad song - sometimes … but overweight or underweight couch potatoes and chat room digit heads may sing that little sad song a lot more frequently than their healthier, more active counterparts.

In a recent study, researchers at the CDC analyzed more than 166,000 American adults who answered the question: "During the past 30 days, for about how many days have you felt sad, blue, or depressed?"
Researchers found the respondents reported an average of three days of feeling depressed in the last 30 days. Nearly 43% reported one or more sad days, and nearly 8% reported 14 or more days of feeling down.
The study also showed that the number of sad days was closely associated with a variety of health indicators including: * People who exercised had 1.3 fewer depressed days per month than those who didn't.
* Obese or underweight people reported more depressed days than those who were normal weight or overweight.

* People who considered themselves in excellent health had only 1.6 depressed days compared with 11 depressed days per month reported among those in poor health.

Two other interesting tidbits … Young adults, ages 18-24, reported the highest number of days with depressive symptoms and findings illuminated a relationship between feeling sad, blue, or depressed and engaging in behaviors risky to health. Unrelated research conducted by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, finds that exercise may also boost feel-happy endorphins, release tension in muscles, help you sleep better and reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Additionally, it increases body temperature which may have a calming effect on our nervous system.

So, exercise impacts our body chemistry and that impacts our emotional chemistry. Symptoms - sadness, anxiety, irritability, stress, fatigue, anger, self-doubt and hopelessness – improve, sometimes dramatically. Moral of this story? If you want to look better, feel better and be happier – get moving and keep moving. An excellent way to do so is to add Life Fitness Equipment to your menagerie. For more information visit: www.lifefitness.com.