Social and preventative

medicine
Sarafina Bowen
 Objectives

● Investigate the immediate effects of exercise on the body;

● Discuss the consequences of exercise on the body and the benefits of
maintaining a physically fit body, with reference to the prevention of chronic
diseases, VO2 max and cardiac efficiency;
 The immediate effects of exercise on the body

When the muscles start to work, they need more oxygen so the respiratory system responds by getting more
oxygen into the lungs. The blood carries greater amounts of oxygen and the heart responds to pump more
oxygenated blood around the body. Immediate effects can be visible in hot, sweaty and red skin.

Your heart is able to deliver more blood, and therefore more oxygen, to the working muscles. Your muscles
will ache. Your muscles will increase in size and produce greater strength (hypertrophy). You may
experience muscle cramps.

When exercising our muscles contract more often and require more energy. Energy is made during the
process of respiration . As more glucose and oxygen is needed, cardiac output (blood pumped per minute)
and blood flow to the muscles increases. This causes an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.
 The consequences of exercise on the body

Your heart and circulation are improved by exercise. The increased blood flow raises
your body's oxygen levels. Your chance of developing heart problems like excessive
cholesterol, coronary artery disease, and heart attacks is reduced as a result.
Additionally, regular exercise helps lower lipid and blood pressure levels.
 The benefits of maintaining a physically fit body

Being physically active can improve your brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease,
strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities. Adults who sit less and
do any amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity gain some health benefits.

The prevention of chronic diseases - Regular physical activity helps improve your overall health,
fitness, and quality of life. It also helps reduce your risk of chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes,
heart disease, many types of cancer, depression and anxiety, and dementia.
 Aerobic exercise
Muscles need oxygen and an energy source such as glucose to provide them with the ATP they need
for contraction. The oxygen is used to allow aerobic respiration to take place. If oxygen is not
supplied to the muscles fast enough, they can get by on anaerobic respiration for a while. But this
produces lactate (lactic acid), and as this builds up the muscles stop working.

An endurance athlete is therefore limited in his or her performance by the rate at which oxygen can be
supplied to the muscles. The harder the muscles are working, the faster the rate at which they use
energy, and therefore the faster the rate that oxygen must be supplied to them. Marathon runners will
try to run at the maximum speed that they can keep up for several hours. Their training increases the
ability of the heart and lungs to get oxygen to the muscles as fast as possible over a long period of
time.
 VO2 max
VO₂ max is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption attainable during physical exertion. The name
is derived from three abbreviations: "V̇" for volume, "O₂" for oxygen, and "max" for maximum. A
similar measure is VO₂ peak, which is the measurable value from a session of physical exercise, be it
incremental or otherwise.
When a person increases the rate at which they are exercising, their rate of oxygen consumption
increases too. However, there comes a point wher e they can no longer get any more oxygen to their
muscles, or where their muscles just cannot use oxygen any faster, at which point the muscles have to
switch over to anaerobic respiration.
The maximum rate at which oxygen is used, before the muscles have to make the switch, is called VO2
max. VO2 max increases with training. A trained athlete can have a higher work rate before their
muscles switch to the less energy-efficient anaerobic respiration. The changes in the muscles described
above contribute to this.
Changes in the cardiovascular system also contribute to this. improvement, by increasing the rate at which
oxygen can be supplied to the muscles. The changes include:
an increased number of red blood cells.
● an increase in the size of the heart muscle, especially in the walls of the left ventricle. This
increases the force with which the muscle can contract and force blood out of the heart.
● an increase in stroke volume–that is, the volume of blood that is forced out of the heart with each
beat.
● an increase in cardiac efficiency–that is, the work output that the heart produces for each unit of
oxygen that it uses.
As a result of these changes, the heart rate of the trained person decreases when they are
resting, because the greater stroke volume means that the same quantity of blood can be
moved around the body using a slower heart rate. However, the maximum possible stroke
volume is considerably increased, so the person can exercise harder and still manage to get
enough blood into their muscles to supply the oxygen that they need. The heart rate
recovery period–that is, the time taken for the heart rate to return to normal after
exercise–decreases with training. This is often used as a good measure of how a person’s
fitness is improving during a training programme.
 Cardiac efficiency

When you start exercising, your muscles tell your heart to beat more quickly so
that more blood can flow through. Working muscles also increase the volume
of a stroke by sending more blood volume back to the lungs for oxygen.
Therefore, increased heart rate and stroke volume during exercise lead to an
increase in cardiac output.
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