50 reasons to exercise - continued

51. Increases your ability to adapt to cold environments.
52. Helps you maintain proper muscle balance.
53. Reduces the rate and severity of medical complications associated with hypertension.
54. Helps to alleviate certain menstrual symptoms.
55. Lowers your heart rate response to sub maximal physical exertion.
56. Helps to alleviate low-back pain.
57. Helps to reduce the amount of insulin required to control blood sugar levels in type I (insulin-dependent) diabetics.
58. Improves mental alertness.
59. Improves respiratory muscle strength and muscle endurance - particularly important for asthmatics.
60. Reduces your risk of having a stroke.
61. Helps you to burn excess calories.
62. Increases your cardiac reserve.
63. Improves your physical appearance.
64. Offsets some of the negative side effects of certain anti-hypertensive drugs. 65. Increases your stroke volume (the amount of blood the heart pumps with each beat).
66. Improves your self-esteem.
67. Reduces your susceptibility for coronary thrombosis (a clot in an artery that supplies the heart with blood).
68. Helps you to relax.
69. Reduces the risk of developing breast cancer.
70. Improves mental cognition (a short-term effect only).
71. Maintains or improves joint flexibility.
72. Improves your glucose tolerance.
73. Reduces workdays missed due to illness.
74. Protects against "creeping obesity" (the slow, but steady weight gain that occurs as you age).
75. Enhances your muscles' abilities to extract oxygen from your blood.
76. Increases your productivity at work.
77. Reduces your likelihood of developing low-back problems.
78. Improves your balance and coordination.
79. Allows you to consume greater quantities of food and still maintain caloric balance.
80. Provides protection against injury.
81. Decreases (by 20 to 30 percent) the need for anti-hypertensive medication, if you are hypertensive.
82. Improves your decision-making abilities.
83. Helps reduce and prevent the immediate symptoms of menopause (hot flashes, sleep disturbances, irritability) and decrease the long-term risks of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and obesity.
84. Helps to relieve and prevent "migraine headache attacks."
85. Reduces the risk of endometriosis (a common cause of infertility).
86. Helps to retard bone loss as you age, thereby reducing your risk of developing osteoporosis.
87. Helps decrease your appetite (a short-term effect only).
88. Improves pain tolerance and mood if you suffer from osteoarthritis.
89. Helps prevent and relieve the stresses that cause carpal tunnel syndrome.
90. Makes your heart a more efficient pump.
91. Helps to decrease left ventricular hypertrophy (a thickening of the walls of the left ventricle) in people with hypertension.
92. Improves your mood
93. Helps to increase your overall health awareness.
94. Reduces the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.
95. Helps you to maintain an independent lifestyle.
96. Reduces the level of abdominal obesity - a significant health-risk factor.
97. Increases the diffusion capacity of the lungs, enhancing the exchange of oxygen from your lungs to your blood.
98. Improves heat tolerance.
99. Improves your overall quality of life.
100. Lifelong regular exercise may be protective against the development of Alzheimer's disease.