Effects of Inactivity
Do you know that we cannot live without exercise at all? A person lying in the bed for more than three weeks = Person working on a sitting job for 8-10 hours/day for six months get similar effects on their bodies and we need lot of efforts to revert them. We must break the equation of 
	Earn for 30 years and spend it for next 30 years (for medical treatment)
Effects on the body
1.	Loss of working muscle to the extent of 8 grams/day; Bed rest more than 3 weeks or sitting job of more than 6 months without exercise has deleterious effects on all muscles of the body including heart muscle. It is estimated that 8gm of muscle protein is lost every day after complete bed rest of 3 weeks and during sedentary jobs also muscle protein is lost gradually day by day. Imagine after couple of years of sedentary life, we see people without any arm and chest muscles, drooping shoulders, lanky backs, poor neck and back muscles, but more accumulation of fat. It takes longer time and effort to build muscles. It is well known that less muscle lead to less bone minerals hence increasing risk for osteoporosis. That means loss of useful tissue; actually muscles not only give shape and strength to the body, but also burn calories to reduce fat. Muscle is important to prevent bone mineral losses ultimately prevent osteoporosis a debilitating brittle bone disease. To get this muscle back you need 5 folds more time. Abnormal dieting, high protein diet will lead to tremendous losses of body muscles which reflected in the form of weight loss but in reality what you don’t lose is fat.

2.	Loss of Calcium from bones: It is estimated that this little period of inactivity leads to loss of 1.54 grams calcium from the bones every day and any amount of calcium tablets will not get back your bone minerals. Women can only pickup and store bone calcium up to 30 years and how long this calcium support depends up on how much calcium she stored. Only way to improve your bone calcium is to exercise and have correct diet throughout life.
3.	Stiff and atrophied muscles and joints: Muscles and the joint spaces are very sensitive to exercise. Inactivity more than 4 weeks, slowly reduces the muscle strength, muscle size, mobility in almost all joints; many a time we may not notice the change so obvious but after 12 weeks of inactivity / bed rest, there will be a marked change in muscle size (large muscles). This is because due to loss of muscle tone and muscle protein. One may feel discomfort in joints especially in extreme movements. This is one of the reasons for early osteoarthritis of knee joints in relatively young people. Sports persons feel it when they take too long breaks during competitive life. 

4.	10-15 % decrease in plasma volume: Blood has two components; first one consists of many types of blood cells and second is plasma (liquid), which contains proteins, protective elements of the body. It was noticed that inactivity of 3 months decreases the plasma volume by up to 15%; that amounts to losing many plasma proteins and protective immunoglobulin. This is of serious concern to everybody.

5.	Decrease in Cardio-vascular capacity leading to rapid fall in aerobic power. Every human loses aerobic capacity (endurance) with age that is the capacity to work for longer duration without getting fatigued. This is also known as aerobic capacity / oxygen carrying capacity / stamina. With regular physical training one can maintain stamina and research suggests that one can increase endurance up to 30%. Marathon runners and long distance cyclists have maximum aerobic capacity. Advancing age and Inactivity together decrease aerobic capacity very rapidly i.e. 10% every 5 years of life after 30 years. That means our heart and lungs
6.	Immunity: Immunity is very important to protect from diseases; sedentary life rapidly drops number of lymphocytes and the immunoglobulins and many more chemical factors responsible for immunity. This is one of the reasons why India is facing today high levels of Diabetes, Heart diseases and Cancer.  

7.	Effects on Chemistry of human Body: Along with increasing body fat leading to obesity, the whole chemistry of body changes. The total cholesterol, LDL (Low density lipoproteins-bad cholesterol), Triglycerides, increase enormously and HDL (high density lipoproteins-good cholesterol) decreases directly increasing risk for many diseases. You must know that HDL-cholesterol can only be improved by Exercise only.  

                         Dear Friend you must exercise every day and every day and everyday!!!!

Regards...

Dr.Chandra Babu Nalagatlla
Medical Officer
Amararaja Group of Companies
Tirupathi.
Mobile:91-9490278333