Cardiorespiratory Fitness May Reduce Risk of Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes in Middle-Aged Men 

Cardiorespiratory Fitness (CRF) plays a major role in one’s life. While it is commonly believed that only athletes and marathon runners are the prime beneficiaries of it, CRF serves as an indicating factor of how physically active you are, and it’s not just athletes that should pay attention. Scientific studies show that a moderately intense level of physical activity and high levels of CRF will reduce the risk of diabetes mellitus in middle-aged men.

Understanding Cardiorespiratory Fitness (CRF)

CRF is a measure of the body’s ability to transport oxygen to your muscles during intense and prolonged physical activity. Also, it is an indication of how well your muscles can absorb the oxygen and use it to generate the ATP energy through cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is the process happening inside your body’s cells that helps in converting the food you eat into the form of ATP energy that it can be used to fuel your muscles. Your body has three energy systems, and aerobic energy system is one of them. Therefore, cardiorespiratory fitness is a measure of your aerobic energy system’s strength.

The American Heart Association has published a scientific statement in the year of 2016 which says that CRF must be assessed routinely in clinical practice as it is a vital sign.

Impact of CRF on One’s Life

• When you breathe air into your lungs, the oxygenated blood is pumped out through the left chamber of your heart, and the arteries deliver this oxygen-rich blood to your muscles. Your muscles then absorb this blood to function effectively. Also, this new and oxygenated blood removes the carbon dioxide-rich deoxygenated blood produced inside the muscles as a result of cellular respiration. This replacement is an important function which results in a person’s ability to perform prolonged physically intense activities. In a nutshell, CRF indicates how well your circulation system is working.
• It decreases your risk of diabetes. A study performed on middle-aged men in says that the men who were more physically active and had a higher level of CRF had reduced risk of being prone to non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Simply put, CRF reduces your risk of getting affected by diabetes. While many fear cancer and deem it a deadly disease, diabetes is no less. Staying safe and cautious when it comes to diabetes is very important. Many get affected by diabetes in their transition from middle age to older age. Therefore, middle-aged men must place utmost emphasis on being physically active and achieve CRF to stay safe from diabetes.
• CRF increases your lifespan. A study performed on mortality says that men who had CRF were less likely to die when compared to lean men who didn’t have CRF.
• It improves your sleep quality. The activity performed in the efforts to reach CRF leads to better blood circulation overall and results in a good night’s quality sleep. As it is known, as time is passing by, there has been a great percentage of people who have been massively sleep deprived. The effects of sleep deprivation include heart disease, weight gain, increased blood pressure and reduced energy during the daytime.
• CRF increases your bone density. Again, to reach this fitness, one must participate in a moderately intense workout session on a regular basis. Regular exercise and activity lead to an increased bone density as well. Also, when the circulation and absorption of blood in the body improves, bones strengthen as well. Low bone density can cause a wide range of health complications like osteoporosis, knee pains, etc., Therefore, increasing your overall CRF helps in avoiding health complications in the future.
• It reduces the cholesterol in your body. As you take up physical activity, it boosts your CRF and battles the cholesterol in your body. Increased cholesterol causes nausea, fatigue and chest pain alongside many other illnesses. Keeping the cholesterol levels in your body under control is extremely necessary.
• CRF results in reduced blood pressure. Increased blood pressure causes heart attacks and cardiac arrests. The wellness of your circulatory system overall ensures that you do not suffer from any heart and blood pressure related illnesses.

Improving Your CRF

If the above list of health benefits has made you convinced to focus on improving your cardiorespiratory fitness, you can accomplish this two ways, increasing the intensity of your current exercise routine or increasing how much exercise you do. Both will result in improvements to your CRF. For those who prefer moderate-intensity exercise, regularly partaking of brisk walk, will still have improvement if you participate in this type of activity longer or more frequently.

Overall, CRF helps in battling cholesterol, blood pressure, decreases the risk of diabetes and helps in extending the lifespan. It is high time you are cardiorespiratory fit!