A Professor of Exercise Physiology, Department of Human Kinetics, Sports and Health Education, Faculty of Education, Lagos State University, Prof Oluwole Akeredolu has advised women who are looking for the fruits of the womb to engage in regular exercise combined with healthy lifestyle and diet to help increase fertility levels.
The Don said this while delivering the 67th edition of LASU Inaugural Lecture at the Main Auditorium in Ojo, where he stressed that women who want to conceive can use exercise to prepare their bodies for the changes that pregnancy brings and the physical challenges of labour.
Prof Akeredolu spoke on the topic “Exercise: Medicine for Healthy Living and Recipe for a Good Life”.
According to him, the benefits of exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle cannot be overemphasised.
” When people make moderate exercise part of their daily life they can improve their general health as well as their fitness levels. Many people are unaware that there is a connection between exercise and fertility”, he said.
He however warned that not all exercise is healthy adding that overexercising is one of the causes of infertility in women.
“Women who exercise excessively are at risk of losing too much body fat which helps to produce estrogen in the body. Just as too much body fat causes hormone imbalance, too little fat can cause irregular ovulation”, he said.
The Professor of Exercise Physiology further warned that women who over exercise can develop amenorrhea which stops menstrual periods entirely.
” Scientists also believe that the endorphins which are released during exercise can also increase Prolactin which is the hormone connected to breast milk and can interrupt ovulation”, he said.
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