Too Much of a Good Thing?

Exercise is good for you, we all need to exercise, and you can never have too much of a good thing, right? Wrong. You can in fact damage your body by exercising too much. When we exercise excessively we cause oxidative stress to our bodies. Oxidative stress causes toxicity in our body by producing free radicals which in turn damage our tissues, cells, and even our DNA. You can also disturb your hormone levels with too much exercise, imbalanced hormones can lead to many problems.

While moderate healthy levels of exercise help keep us young excessive exercise that causes this oxidative stress will actually contribute to us aging faster. Oxidative stress is also involved in pathological processes such as heart disease and chronic fatigue, two conditions which we look to prevent with moderate amounts of exercise.

So exercise, do your cardio and strength training, but don’t over do it. Give yourself days off, don’t exercise vigorously for 3 hours a day, you don’t need it. You can get in an effective work out in 30 minutes to one hour a day, for five days a week and be healthy!

To counter act the oxidative stress created by exercise be sure you are getting plenty of antioxidants in your diet, and if you aren’t getting enough from food then supplement with a high quality antioxidant.

Good antioxidant food sources include: Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, small red beans and kidney, pinto and black beans, avocados, cherries, green and red pears, fresh or dried plums, pineapple, kiwi, artichokes, spinach, red cabbage, red and white potatoes (with peel), sweet potatoes, broccoli, green tea, walnuts, pistachios, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger, dried oregano leaf and turmeric powder and of course dark chocolate.

Need a high quality antioxidant supplement like Nutri-West’s Co-Q10 Plus, just ask next time you are in the office!