Synergistic Effects of Whole-foods Plant-based Nutrition and Physical
Exercise, in Helping Reduce the Risks of Major Chronic Diseases
Stephan Esser MD, USPTAMatt Ruscigno RD,MPH
Goals
• Identify 3 plant food compounds beneficial for both physical activity recovery and chronic disease prevention
• Describe the physiological benefits of regular exercise on behalf of disease prevention
• During counseling of patients, successfully cite practical, evidence based methods to increase physical activity and increase use of plant based meals
“Eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise. For food and exercise……
work together to produce health.”Hippocrates
Regimen 400 BC
Ancient Awareness
• Early observations – Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.)• “if we could give every individual the right amount of
nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health”
– Cornelius Celsus (ca.10-60)• “take exercise: for whilst inaction weakens the body,
work strengthens it; the former brings on premature old age, the latter prolongs youth”
CDC Exercise Stats
• 60% of adults are not regularly active
• 25% are not active at all
• By age 75 1:3 men and 1:2 women engage in NO physical exercise
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/health_professionals/index.htm
Defining Exercise
• Exercise:–movement of the body resulting in the
enhancement of health and improvement of function
Categories
• Leisure time Exercise: organized sports, running, gym activities, rehabilitation etc.
• Lifestyle Exercise: activity incorporated into our daily pattern of life – eg: parking in the distant portion of the parking lot rather then the first
bumper, taking the stairs instead of the elevator etc.
Present Recommendations
• Resistance Training:
– 2-3 days per week
– All major muscle groups
– 2-4 sets of each exercise
– 48 hours in between sessions
Present Recommendations
• Flexibility:– 2-3 days/week to improve range of motion
• Balance:– 2-3 days/week
Exercise and Physical Health• Reduces risk of – Heart Disease ≈ 40%– Obesity: ≈ 30-100%– Stroke ≈ 50%– Type 2 Diabetes ≈ 50%– Hypertension ≈ 50%– Disability delayed ≈15 years– Colon Cancer ≈ 25-40%– Breast Cancer ≈ 20%-44%– Osteoporosis ≈ 20+%
• As many as 250,000 deaths per year in the United States are attributable to a lack of regular physical activity
Physical Health Cont’d
• Improve Balance• Reduce Fall risk• Improve Systemic Circulation• Accelerate Skin Healing• Bowel Regularity• Improved Energy/Resilience
Exercise and Mental Health
• Regular Exercise:– Reduces risk of:• Depression• Anxiety• ADD/ADHD• Alzheimers Dementia
– Improves:• Mental Clarity, test scores, focus
Disuse
• Bedrest:
– BMD, increased bone resorption– muscle mass and strength– muscle fiber size– fatty infiltration of muscle–Impaired O2 exchange– Cardiac function, efficiency
“A review of biologic changes commonly
attributed to the process of aging demonstrates the close similarity of
most of these to changes subsequent to a period of enforced physical
inactivity………………a portion of the changes that are commonly attributed to aging are in reality caused by disuse and, as such, are subject to correction.
There is no drug in current or prospective use that holds as much promise for
sustained health as a lifetime program of physical exercise.”(JAMA 1982;248:1203-1208)
Walter Bortz MD
Disuse and Aging
Beet Juice• Webb et al. Acute blood pressure lowering, vasoprotective, and anti-
platelet properties of dietary nitrate via bioconversion to nitrite.– Healthy Volunteers– Given 500ml of beet root juice– 3 hours after consumption– BP by (max –10.4/8 mm Hg)
– Dietary nitrate load also prevented endothelial dysfunction induced by an acute ischemic insult in the human forearm
– Significantly attenuated ex vivo platelet aggregation in response to collagen and ADP
– “high nitrate content” acts as a source of vasoprotective nitric oxide via bioactivation
Hypertension.2008; 51: 784–790
• Beetroot juice and exercise: pharmacodynamic and dose-response relationships
• 10 young adult healthy males• 70, 140, and 280 ml BR or NO3−-depleted BR as placebo (PL)• 2.5 hrs after completed cycle exercise tests• Plasma [NO2−] increased in a dose-dependent manner, with the peak changes
occurring at approximately 2–3 h. • 70 ml BR did not alter the physiological responses to exercise. • 140 and 280 ml BR reduced the steady-state oxygen (O2) uptake during
moderate-intensity exercise • Time-to-task failure was extended by 14% and 12% (both P < 0.05), respectively,
compared with PL.
• Journal of Applied PhysiologyPublished 1 August 2013Vol. 115no. 3, 325-336
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