Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Disease

What’s more, the risk of both type 2 diabetes and heart disease gets higher the more inactive you are, the Korean Journal of Family Medicinestudy says.

A little over 34 million Americans are diabetic and 88 million U.S. adults have prediabetes, a 2020 diabetes statistics report by the CDC says.

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, is caused by the body not getting enough insulin, which is a hormone that allows your body to use glucose (blood sugar) that gives you energy.

Switching to a more active lifestyle can help manage your diabetes because exercise makes your body more sensitive to insulin, the CDC says.

Heart disease, like heart attacks and heart failure, leads to a staggering 655,000 deaths each year in the U.S., the CDC states.

But regular exercise is a major key in preventing heart disease, along with eating healthy, quitting smoking, limiting alcohol, and keeping your cholesterol and blood pressure levels low.

Mental Health Effects

Staying active can have positive mental health outcomes, since exercising releases endorphins, or natural “happy chemicals” in the body that can leave you with a high, euphoric feeling, often compared to that of morphine.

When you’re focusing your attention on crushing your workout, your concerns and worries often take a backseat.

Staying active can also raise your self-confidence, since regular exercise is a major part of maintaining a fit, healthy physique.

The inability or lack of motivation to exercise during the pandemic has had negative effects on the mental health of people in the U.S. and across the globe, according to a study in Preventive Medicine Reports.

Between April and September of 2020, researchers conducted an online survey of 4,026 adults in Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, and West Virginia.

Findings show the more physically active the adults were during the pandemic, the less likely they were to face mental health struggles, such as depression or anxiety.

Adults in more urban areas reported having more trouble staying active, likely due to things in the environment, which resulted in greater mental health challenges, the study says.