How Healthy Are You?
“I want to be fit & healthy”
This is a common goal for people starting training, but what does that really mean and how do you know when you have achieved these goals? Are you fit when you can run a certain distance or lift a particular weight? Are you healthy if you get less sick? Fit and healthy means different things to different people, but the research scientists will tell you there is more you should know about health and fitness…
Measuring Fitness
Physical fitness is known to be important for good health. The most precise measure of overall cardiovascular fitness is Maximal Oxygen Uptake (VO2max*), which is the maximal amount of oxygen that your body is capable of using to produce energy. Every cell in your body needs oxygen to continue all processes to keep you alive. You can think of VO2max being a sum of how well your lungs breath in oxygen, how well the oxygen is transferred into your blood stream, how effective your heart is at pumping the blood, how good your blood vessels are at transferring the blood and how well the tissues are at using the oxygen to produce energy. The most accurate measurements are done with high level equipment measuring your breathing while attending a graded exercise test to exhaustion (photo from testing at Physiologic, Robina).
*This article uses VO2max and VO2peak interchangeably to simplify the topic.
Improve Fitness – Reduce Risk of Chronic Disease
Studies show that the higher VO2max the lower your risk of developing chronic disease and vise versa, the lower VO2max the higher is your risk.
People with high cardiorespiratory fitness have:
- Reduced risk of cancer
- Reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes
- Reduced risks of heart attacks
- Lower levels of inflammation in their body
- Less headaches
- Lower risk of depression and anxiety
- Reduced risk of developing metabolic syndrome
- 40-50% reduced risk of getting dementia
The above research findings are from the Cardiac Exercise Research Group at NTNU. You can find more information here. More articles are also listed here
What researchers say about the importance of the assessment
“Despite that PeakVO2 is a strong predictor of future health and mortality, it is not routinely measured in clinical practice. The reason for this is simply due to the costly and time-consuming procedure of exercise testing that requires trained personnel and expensive equipment. Based upon all the evidence, Peak VO2 should in my view be regarded as a vital sign on line with blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity etc. Low fitness as a risk factor has the power of the risk of blood pressure, smoking and high blood pressure combined. I realised 10 years ago that it would take a long time before fitness can be measured objectively at a GP’s office.” - Professor & head of CERG Ulrik Wisløff
Our mission is to make this assessment available to everyone
Choosing to live a healthy and active lifestyle is the best insurance you can have against chronic disease.
We feel strongly that this assessment should be available in medical clinics around the world to help people learn more about their health and fitness and to help them take the appropriate steps to improve their health. We are commited to provide this service for everyone using gold standard equipment and skilled personnel. Our passion is to arm people with the knowledge they need to make the best health decisions for them.
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