Lack of constant physical exercise can cause many diseases. Here I will mention the diseases that can be originated or aggravate due to physical inactivity or a sedentary lifestyle.
I will also mention some studies that show how the fact of exercising can reduce the risk of suffering many diseases considered as Chronic and Non-Transmittable . Look at all the diseases that prevent exercise.
Before continuing, I want to clarify that Not necessarily the term "sedentarism" is associated with physical inactivity, since in itself it is a state or a decision that a person or social group takes to settle down to live in one place ... but This does not indicate a total lack of exercise ... NOTE: exercising regularly will help you prevent all diseases that I will mention below.
However, currently the term sedentarism usually has this connotation related to the physical inactivity, reason why in this article for practical terms I will mention both terms ("Physical inactivity" and "Sedentarism") as if they were synonymous. So, while exercise helps prevent many diseases, physical inactivity stimulates the appearance or aggravation of them.
Lack of exercise and all the diseases this can cause
1. Shrinking or atrophy of the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain. This factor is further aggravated as the years go by if you do not exercise. It could be reduced if at least the person practices activities targeted to exercise the brain and memory, such as the well-known Neuro pilates.
The ideal for a person would be to develop and maintain all their cognitive abilities through physical exercise, even more so if it involves sports where they have to make quick decisions, where they must also be forced to learn new maneuvers, techniques, etc.
The atrophy of these brain lobes leads to the deterioration of some language abilities, to sudden changes in mood. If these lobes begin to atrophy then we will reduce our ability to concentrate, to make good and quick decisions. We will also lose the ability to orient ourselves in space-time.
2. Less secretion of endorphin. When we do exercise or practice sports, even more when we do it in company (friends, family, etc.), we tend to feel good during and after the session. This is mainly thanks to the release of endorphin that is generated in our body. So when we spend a lot of time without exercising and at the same time submit our body to the stress of everyday life ... then our mood and health become very deteriorated.
3. Stroke with negative sequelae. Practicing physical exercise mainly stimulates the release of nitric oxide which allows a good vasodilation. Of course, practicing physical exercise on a regular basis stimulates that our body has a higher production of HDL (high density lipoproteins) which are responsible for evacuating the cholesterol that LDL (low density lipoproteins) accumulate in the arteries once it has evacuated from the liver.
At the same time, physical exercise allows the person to experience a state of general well-being by strengthening all systems of the body, and all this together (plus adequate nutrition) avoids or greatly reduces the risk of stroke.
4. Depression. Mainly beacuse physical inactivity or lack of exercise does not stimulate endorphin secretion. It also avoids good blood oxygenation and adequate transport of nutrients. Physical inactivity can also result in atrophy of the myocardium or decrease of its efficiency of work (less efficiency when it "pumps" blood to the more distal muscles) ...
... all this together is what in principle can cause depression in a person. And if this is added to the stress of whatever type (sentimental, work, academic, etc.), then this can be aggravated to the point of leading to extreme and "malignant" or negative bradycardia that can lead to a cardiorespiratory arrest and perhaps to death. Of course this factor can also generate suicidal tendencies in a person.
5. Dementia. If physical inactivity is accompanied by day-to-day stress, and in addition to this factor is added the fact of primary "aging" (that which is inevitable), then the risk of dementia is increased, especially if added also the aforementioned atrophy of some brain lobes and also the following illness that I will mention in point 6.
6. Less blood flow to the Dentate Nucleus. In the dentate nucleus, one of the parts constituting the hippocampus, gray matter is stored. This gray matter is what gives a person his or her reasoning ability. If this section does not reach a good blood flow because of physical inactivity, then the person can get to the point of idiocy and perhaps to dementia.
7. Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is considered a type of dementia since it has to do with the deterioration of the capacity to reason, behave and think. It has a lot to do with the low neuronal myelination and also with the neuronal death caused by genetic factors and bad habits of life such as physical inactivity, malnutrition, consumption of SPA (psychoactive substances), etc.
8. Absence of emotions and a bad mood. If the body is not forced to "get better" through physical exercise or at least through pleasant social interaction (go out to share with friends and family, laugh, enjoy life), then gradually everything mentioned so far will appear (lower blood flow, cerebral atrophy, etc.), which can cause a person's emotional behavior to be adversely affected.
9. Lower neurogenesis. Not exercising regularly means that the body does not see the need to create new neurons, and at the same time there is no reason why the neurons already "working" can get better abilities to carry better and constant nerve impulses through a better myelination.
10. Loss or diminution of cognitive, coordination and balance abilities. This factor have a lot to do with the points or diseases mentioned so far. If there is a lower blood flow, there is less muscular, neural and connective tissue responsiveness, and this would not allowed a quick and timely response to light or sudden movements.
Of course in general weakness will appear: there will be muscle atrophy, decrease in bone density, and all this also plays against balance and coordination. Although in general it is more because the brain is atrophied because it is simply not used or very little used to perform activities or physical exercises of higher difficulty.
11. Breast cancer. It can occur in both men and women because of a high state of hypoxia (lack of oxygen) precisely because of the non-stimulation in the creation of mitochondria through physical exercise, and because of other bad habits of life as well Malnutrition.
12. High levels of LDL, low levels of HDL, high blood pressure. Not exercising greatly reduces the production of HDL which are high density lipoproteins that are responsible for eradicating the possible accumulations of cholesterol that LDL leave in the walls of the arteries ...
... physical inactivity Does not promote the production of HDL and malnutrition increases liver cholesterol so that LDL must work to remove this cholesterol from the liver, but unfortunately only enough to leave it in the arteries. But because there is little or zero production of HDL due to physical inactivity and malnutrition (because omega 3 and 6 fatty acids promote the creation of HDL) ... then there is arterial tamponade, which causes slow blood flow ...
... this of course generates high blood pressure, few transport of oxygen and nutrients to the cells, risk of stroke and cardiovascular, among other illnesses that have to do with poor circulation of blood.
13. Visceral obesity, type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, fatty liver. Exercise increases the proliferation of mitochondria, increases the working efficiency of the myocardium, lung capacity, ability to capture and use oxygen ... all this being very necessary to increase energy expenditure and prevent obesity and fatty liver, mainly , among other diseases ...
... As for type 2 diabetes, this is associated with the low production of insulin and also with the resistance that the body can present to this hormone, it will not enough of something that allows glucose to enter the cells and therefore the glucose will be circulating in the bloodstream, creating a sweet and saturated propitious space which hinders normal blood flow ...
... all this can also generate high levels of hypoxia and thus provide a suitable environment for the proliferation of cancer cells since these are anaerobic (can live without oxygen) ... and some specialists also relate these cells to the Capacity that they have to feed with sugar, in this case the excess of glucose that is generated by insufficient insulin production and / or resistance to this hormone, will feed them.
14. Congestive heart failure. This pathology simply generates that the myocardium (heart) can not pump blood efficiently and that therefore can accumulate blood in different organs.
15. Endothelial dysfunction. This causes a low production of nitric oxide (NO) which leads to a little vasodilatation and therefore the blood flow is lower and at the same time with more pressure, which is why this pathology can also generate hypertension.
16. Transient ischemic attack. Because of all the poor circulation that has been mentioned (low production of nitric oxide, high concentration of glucose and other wastes, hypoxia, etc.), there is little blood reaching the brain and generally blood with little oxygen. So this type of accident can occur.
17. Muscle atrophy, reduction of neuromuscular strenght. This is getting worse over the years. Atrophy occurs, the motor-neurons ability to send powerful impulses to allow muscular contractions is lost.
18. Oxidative capacity is reduced. By not doing something that stimulates the creation of mitochondria and that in itself improves the uptake and utilization of oxygen, then the person will burn less fat and also while doing some relatively "soft" and everyday activities like climbing stairs, walking, then accumulating more Lactic acid and at the same time it (lactic acid)will last longer in the blood because it will take longer to be oxidized and therefore recycled and / or reused.
19. Osteoporosis, reduction in the function and structure of ligaments, tendons, joints. The exercises or sports that generate impact stimulate the bone remineralization and therefore the bones become more and more dense and strong. Of course good nutrition and other good habits of life such as sleeping well, avoiding alcohol, etc., help to promote this factor of bone strengthening, ligaments, tendons and improvement in joint mobility.
20. Inefficiency in the healing and healing of cutaneous wounds. This factor occurs mainly due to malnutrition leading to deficiency of vitamins C, A, K, among others, minerals such as zinc, magnesium, among others ... and also a high degree of obesity to a morbid point that can reach To generate a severe inflammatory response that causes the immune system to attack the organism itself.
Exercise helps prevent the manifestation and / or decrease the intensity of all these diseases mentioned
It is so impressive what a single exercise session can do, that in a study carried out in women of average age 26, it was stipulated the hypothesis that a single resistance workout session could induce to inhibit insulin resistance.
The results showed that, in a single session, resistance to this hormone was significantly reduced. In the references I leave the link to this study (Schenk & Horowitz, 2007).
Another very important factor has to do with autophagy, since resistance exercises helped to make the cells more efficient in eradicating waste products from their interior and at the same time remain more functional and healthy (Mejías-Peña Et al., 2016).
References:
Mejías-Peña, Y., Rodriguez-Miguelez, P., Fernandez-Gonzalo, R., Martínez-Flórez, S., Almar, M., de Paz, J. A., … González-Gallego, J. (2016). Effects of aerobic training on markers of autophagy in the elderly. AGE, 38(2), 33. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-016-9897-y
Schenk, S., & Horowitz, J. F. (2007). Acute exercise increases triglyceride synthesis in skeletal muscle and prevents fatty acid – induced insulin resistance. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 117(6), 18–20. http://doi.org/10.1172/JCI30566.1690