6 Ways Running Benefits Your Health And Not Just Your Weight Loss

If you own an Instagram account or have flicked through the pages of Vogue, chances are you would have come across a fat-to-fit success story that involved hitting the pavement or you would have noticed the plethora of long-limbed beauties putting their toned pins down to running. However, the benefits of running are not limited to weight loss and toned legs. Here are 10 powerful reasons to invest in a pair or runners and start clocking up the miles. 

1.Helps treat depression: Running has been scientifically shown to help treat depression and while it may be hard to find the motivation to run when feeling down, case studies have shown that patients who were treated with running and meditation showed incredible results. 

2. Elevates your mood: In today's increasingly stressful work life, everyone experiences down days every once in a while. Nothing will give your neurotransmitters a boost, releasing dopamine and endorphins like going for a short run. 

3.Reduces Stress: Feeling the effects of a hectic workweek or other stresses that come with daily life. Hit the pavement for a serious release of serotonin. Ensuring you keep stress at bay will lessen the likelihood of many common diseases such as cancers and heart disease.

4. Disease Prevention: A plethora of scientific studies have linked running to disease prevention and living longer. While exercise, in general, is beneficial to our health, running strengthens the heart and body in a way that other exercise doesn’t and has been linked to preventing some of the most common, lifestyle related cancers.

5.Blood pressure regulation: For those experiencing both high and low blood pressure problems, just 5 minutes of running per day has been shown to help promote healthy blood pressure and lower the likelihood of CV disease by as much as 50%. 

6.Boost your brain power. Several studies have linked a committed running routine to promoting brain health with a Harvard Study finding that running helped improve memory in a way that weight training did not.