Skiing Is Good For You - Five Reasons Why

Yes, it's true, everything us afficionados of skiing have been saying for years. Skiing is good for you (snowboarding too). Not just because we love it and it makes us feel good. The proof has been around us for years, skiers tend to be healthier, happier, and live longer. Look at the seventy year old whizzing past as we pick ourselves up. Here's five good reasons why:

1: Sunlight; Do you suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD)? Many people do, especially in areas where seasonal differences are marked. For example, one in fifty people (2% of the population) in the UK are sufferers.

This depressive condition is real, and results from the decrease in the body's level of serotonin due to the lack of sunlight in the winter months. This condition can vary from a mild form of blues to severe depression.

Skiing is a great mood lifter and booster of serotonin, just get out on those sunny slopes and forget those winter blues.

2: Adrenalin; When it boils down to it we are just another animal on this planet. OK, probably the most successful, But we still have our basic instincts from thousands of years back, the fight or flight syndrome being the most obvious.

In modern life we often produce adrenalin in response to stressful situations that we find ourselves in, but with no outlet to use up that adrenalin. This is bad for us. Get out on those difficult runs, maybe just a little bit more difficult than we are comfortable with, and go for it.

You will produce loads of adrenalin in response, and the physical activity used in getting to the bottom in one piece will use up the adrenalin, and as a bonus produce endorphins which will make you feel great. It goes without saying that the exercise is good for you.

3: Altitude; I'll bet you didn't know that just the physical fact of being at altitude can make you lean and fit. A little while ago a study was carried out in Austria, using volunteers from different walks of life at moderate altitudes.

It was found that overweight men who suffered from high cholesterol and high blood pressure, who were prescribed medium distance walks at altitudes between 1400 metres (4200 feet approx.) and 2000 metres (6000 feet approx.) actually lost weight, and reduced their blood pressure and cholesterol to a considerable degree.

Exercise at altitude over a period of time improves the ability of the blood to absorb oxygen, improves heart function and circulation, and burns more calories than the same exercise at sea level. So you could say skiing makes you live longer!

4: Fresh Air; Fresh air, especially at altitude helps to boost the immune system and prevents disease. Well, certainly airborne diseases. The air at altitude is much cleaner, with less of the airborne particles that can cause so many problems. It has also been found that at moderate altitudes open wounds heal faster and are less prone to infection.

Studies done in the mid 1990's showed that folk living in the most polluted areas of the world, mainly cities (and this applies to the western world as well as the third world) have an almost 30% greater chance of dying younger than average than those from cleaner areas. The inhabitants of Tibet for example are known to be very long lived. Get up those mountains and enjoy the fresh air.

5: Learning; yes, I'm sure we all know that learning is good for us, stimulating our little grey cells. Learning new skills, especially in our later years can help enormously in staving off many mental conditions such as memory loss, senility, and dementia.

Skiing provides the opportunity to learn not just new physical skills, but (if you go to a foreign country) but the challenge of learning perhaps a new language, or the culture of a new environment. Drastically reducing the risk mof age related problems.

So there you go. Skiing is good for you, and it's good fun. You should try it if you havn't already (it's never too late), or do more of it if you already do!