WHY CYCLING IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH.

To be fit and healthy you need to be physically active. Regular physical activity can help protect you from serious diseases such as obesity, heart disease, cancer, mental illness, diabetes and arthritis. Riding your bicycle regularly is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of health problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle.

Cycling is a healthy, low-impact exercise that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, from young children to older adults. It is also fun, cheap and good for the environment.

Riding to work or the shops is one of the most time-efficient ways to combine regular exercise with your everyday routine. An estimated one billion people ride bicycles every day – for transport, recreation and sport.

CYCLING FOR HEALTH AND FITNESS

It only takes two to four hours a week to achieve a general improvement to your health. Cycling is:

Low impact – it causes less strain and injuries than most other forms of exercise.

A good muscle workout – cycling uses all of the major muscle groups as you pedal.

Easy – unlike some other sports, cycling does not require high levels of physical skill. Most people know how to ride a bike and, once you learn, you don’t forget.

Good for strength and stamina – cycling increases stamina, strength and aerobic fitness.

As intense as you want – cycling can be done at very low intensity to begin with, if recovering from injury or illness, but can be built up to a demanding physical workout.

A fun way to get fit – the adventure and buzz you get from coasting down hills and being outdoors means you are more likely to continue to cycle regularly, compared to other physical activities that keep you indoors or require special times or places.

Time-efficient – as a mode of transport, cycling replaces sedentary (sitting) time spent driving motor vehicles or using trams, trains or buses with healthy exercise.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF REGULAR CYCLING

Cycling is mainly an aerobic activity, which means that your heart, blood vessels and lungs all get a workout. You will breathe deeper, perspire and experience increased body temperature, which will improve your overall fitness level.

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF REGULAR CYCLING INCLUDE:

* increased cardiovascular fitness
* increased muscle strength and flexibility
* improved joint mobility
* decreased stress levels
* improved posture and coordination
* strengthened bones
* decreased body fat levels
* prevention or management of disease
* reduced anxiety and depression.

Cycling can improve both physical and mental health, and can reduce the chances of experiencing many health problems.
Obesity and weight control

Cycling is a good way to control or reduce weight, as it raises your metabolic rate, builds muscle and burns body fat. If you’re trying to lose weight, cycling must be combined with a healthy eating plan. Cycling is a comfortable form of exercise and you can change the time and intensity – it can be built up slowly and varied to suit you.

Research suggests you should be burning at least 8,400 kilojoules (about 2,000 calories) a week through exercise. Steady cycling burns about 1,200 kilojoules (about 300 calories) per hour.

If you cycle twice a day, the kilojoules burnt soon add up. British research shows that a half-hour bike ride every day will burn nearly five kilograms of fat over a year.

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE AND CYCLING

Cardiovascular diseases include stroke, high blood pressure and heart attack. Regular cycling stimulates and improves your heart, lungs and circulation, reducing your risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Cycling strengthens your heart muscles, lowers resting pulse and reduces blood fat levels. Research also shows that people who cycle to work have two to three times less exposure to pollution than car commuters, so their lung function is improved. A Danish study conducted over 14 years with 30,000 people aged 20 to 93 years found that regular cycling protected people from heart disease.

CANCER AND CYCLING

Many researchers have studied the relationship between exercise and cancer, especially colon and breast cancer. Research has shown that if you cycle, the chance of bowel cancer is reduced. Some evidence suggests that regular cycling reduces the risk of breast cancer.

DIABETES AND CYCLING

The rate of type 2 diabetes is increasing and is a serious public health concern. Lack of physical activity is thought to be a major reason why people develop this condition. Large-scale research in Finland found that people who cycled for more than 30 minutes per day had a 40 per cent lower risk of developing diabetes.
Bone injuries, arthritis and cycling

Cycling improves strength, balance and coordination. It may also help to prevent falls and fractures. Riding a bike is an ideal form of exercise if you have osteoarthritis, because it is a low-impact exercise that places little stress on joints.

Cycling does not specifically help osteoporosis (bone-thinning disease) because it is not a weight-bearing exercise.
Mental illness and cycling

Mental health conditions such as depression, stress and anxiety can be reduced by regular bike riding. This is due to the effects of the exercise itself and because of the enjoyment that riding a bike can bring.

Pick up a form of exercise and keep fit, but if you usually have a tight schedule, make cycling that keeping fit means. It's economy friendly and requires no unique qualities.

HIDDEN HUNGER

Hidden hunger is a type of malnutrition which is also known as micronutrient deficiency.
It is a major public health problem found in most developing countries.
It is called hidden hunger because it does not elicit the hunger in the affected individual,
thereby making the individual to look alright but suffering extremely negative impact on
health and well being. It affects infants, children, adults, adolescents and expectant
mothers. Children may turn out stunted and most times suffer frequent illness
1 out of 3 people suffer from hidden hunger mostly from developing countries thereby
exposing them to higher risk to infections, birth defects and impaired development.
Sufferers of this type of malnutrition consume diets that are micronutrient deficient. They
habitually consume large amounts of staple foods crops, high in calories (e.g. cassava,
maize, wheat and rice) but lack sufficient micronutrients.
Affected victims are often too poor to understand or afford balanced /nutritious diet.

CAUSES:

Common cause of hidden hunger is poor diet. Diets based mostly on stable crops such
as maize, wheat, rice and cassava that provides large amount of energy but relatively
lack essential vitamins and minerals, (vit A, zinc, iron and iodine) always result in hidden
hunger. Impaired absorption due to infections or parasites can also lead to hidden
hunger

EFFECT OF HIDDEN HUNGER

Hidden hunger leads to mental impairment, poor health, and low productivity which
affect children by preventing them from achieving the full development needed in their
physical, intellectual and social potential.
It has adverse effect on the society at large by posing devastating threats to health,
education, economic growth especially in developing countries.

KEY MICRONUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES AND THEIR EFFECTS

IODINE DEFICIENCY: it affects 780 million people worldwide. The clearest symptom is a
swelling of the thyroid gland called goiter. But the most serious impact is on the brain,
which cannot develop properly without iodine. It is associated with severe mental
retardation and physical stunting in infants.

VITAMIN A DEFICIENCY: vitamin A deficiency weakens the immune systems of a large
proportion of under-fives in poor countries, thereby increasing their vulnerability to
disease. A deficiency in vit A increases the risk of dying from diarrhea, measles and
malaria, affects pregnant women, and also a leading cause of child blindness across
developing countries.

ZINC DEFICIENCY: contributes to growth failure and weakened immunity in young
children. It is linked to a higher risk of diarrhea and pneumonia, stunting and frequent
infections

IRON DEFICIENCY: this is the most prevalent form of malnutrition worldwide, affecting
millions of people. Iron forms the molecules that carry oxygen in the blood, so
symptoms of a deficiency include tiredness and lethargy. Lack of iron in large segments
of the population severely damages a country's productivity. Iron deficiency also
impedes cognitive development and low energy, affecting 40-60 percent of children
aged 6-24 months in developing countries. It also leads to anemia, low birth weight, high
maternal mortality and premature births.

SOLUTIONS TO ERADICATING HIDDEN HUNGER

Dietary diversity:

Dietary diversity should be encouraged and practiced as it ensures a healthy diet that
contains a balanced and adequate combination of macronutrients, micronutrients and
other food-based substances like dietary fiber.

Food fortification:

Food fortification adds trace amount of micronutrients to staple foods during processing
and also helps in achieving recommended levels of micronutrients.

Biofortification:

This involves breeding foods crops, using conventional or transgenic method to
increase their micronutrients content. It can provide steady and safe source of certain
micronutrients for people not reached by other interventions as it targets mostly rural
areas

Vitamin A supplementation:

This improves child survival by reducing high risk of child mortality and also reduces
incidence of diarrhea.

THE WAY FORWARD

There should be actions aimed at improving monitory and public education about the
importance of consuming iodized salts and these activities should be focused mainly on
infants, children, adolescents and pregnant women.
Dietary diversity should be promoted by involving in food-based strategies like home
gardening, food preparation and storage/preservation method and educating people on
better infant and young child feeding practices
Easy access to consumers in the rural areas should be provided as to reduce the gap in
accessing fortified foods among rural and urban consumers
There should be actions to educate, improve and monitor biofortification as it can help
to close the micronutrient deficiency gap.
Vitamin A supplements should be provided an targeted at the vulnerable populations
like pregnant women and under 5 children.
Social protection that gives poor people access to nutritious foods and shields them
from price spike should be provided.

By Ihuoma Pearl
BS.c, MPH.