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Know Your Gym

By Alex

Most of us exercise for one main reason: to be healthy. Whether you're maintaining or reaching for a healthy lifestyle, you want your gym to make your efforts worthwhile. Of course, health is more than just looking good. It takes work and conscious effort and a will to be truly healthy, inside and out. But as you spend time at your local gym, working off those extra pounds, keeping your heart in shape, or clearing your mind, make sure that your gym isn't robbing you of your long term health.

Older buildings, like homes, schools, and gyms, were often built using natural mineral called asbestos. Asbestos is mined from earth deposits and was used in drywall, heating appliances, tile adhesive, and insulation in buildings constructed before 1975. Used because of its low cost and its fire-resistant qualities, asbestos is perfectly safe when left undisturbed.

However, when asbestos is sanded, dented, broken, cut, or burned, its microscopic fibers are released into the air. If inhaled or ingested over a prolonged period of time, these fibers collect in the lining of the lungs or stomach and cause mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer, often found in the lungs. Symptoms of mesothelioma include coughing, shortness of breath, and chest heaviness. Because these symptoms are similar to many other, less serious ailments, mesothelioma is often undiagnosed. Mesothelioma symptoms are latent for 20-50 years and because they are not often alarming, the cancer is allowed to spread to other organs before treatment is administered. Perhaps the most alarming statistic about this cancer is that the mesothelioma life expectancy is only fourteen months, at the most.

Frequenting a gym or any other building that contains asbestos can have long lasting negative effects on your health. To reduce your risk of mesothelioma, check with your gym. Make sure that it's asbestos free and that it meets the requirements set forth by the EPA for good air quality. If you're experiencing mesothelioma symptoms, talk with your doctor about a cancer screening. You're doing your best to live a long healthy life by working out and eating right. Don't let toxins like asbestos and cancers like mesothelioma stand in your way.

For individuals who are diagnosed with cancer, the gym might seem like a lost past-time. An illness should not deter one from maintaining an exercise routine though. Exercise has been shown time and again to have numerous significant health benefits. Though, understandably, for individuals who are not healthy to begin with, exercise can present some challenges.

Koko Fit Club, a national chain of gyms, is using a new technology to tailor fitness programs to individual clients fighting or recovering from cancer. Trainers at the Koko gyms employ the patented Koko Smartraining System to personalize workout routines, and some are starting to use it to give cancer patients the workout they need without overtaxing them. This kind of innovation is an amazing resource to patients, and is a great way to empower those suffering from illness.

About the Author

Written by Alex

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The above guest post is published based on the premise that it will be helpful and informative. The opinions made within it are those of the author and not of sunnyray.org. The links you may find within this post do not necessarily imply our recommendation or endorsement of the views expressed within them.

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