Exercise, Diet & Love for a Healthy Heart

115 runners & walkers line up for pre race instuctions for the Big Dog Valentine's Day Event

   Often, in the health and fitness world, the main focus is placed on exercise and diet as the key components to living a long and productive life.

   We all know the benefits of regular physical exercise and how it can keep at bay many of the ailments afflicting millions of Americans each year.

   Thirty minutes of moderate, prolonged exercise, in which your heart rate is elevated can help you reduce your chances of getting hypertension, diabetes, certain cancers, and it can control your waist line from increasing.

   Add a healthy diet rich in colorful fruits and vegetables and you have increased your chances of being productive well into your 80’s and 90’s.

   One thing often overlooked when considering overall health is love.  Yes, love! 

   How you feel about your spouse, your children and yourself play an important role in longevity. 

   Recent research into the subject of love have found that happily married people live longer and that relationship has a huge impact on their overall health.

   Research  into the positive effects of love by Dr. Dean Omish on 10 thousand married men who had high risk factors such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and diabetes, found that the men who felt loved by their wives experienced half the amount of angina (chest pains) compared to men who didn’t feel loved by their wives.

   Another study done in 2007 found that simply putting your affectionate feelings down on paper can lower your cholesterol level.  The five week study had volunteers write about their feeling of loved ones in 20 minute sessions, three times per day.  At the end of the fifth week all were found to have significantly lowered their cholesterol levels.

   Love can be a magically tool that could add years to your life and is an important component that leads to better health.

   On Sunday Big Dog Productions hosted a Valentine’s Day 3.2-mile run/walk with special categories for couples which included husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, father/daughter, and mother/son.

   With the theme being Valentine’s Day recognition was giving to those who brought their partner to spend some time exercising together.

Jason & Melissa Braswell

   Heading the list of couples during the morning run/walk were Jason and Melissa Braswell, owners of the Big Island Running Company in Kailua-Kona.

   The Braswell’s not only love to run, they love to be around runners and will often enter a variety of running and walking events throughout the Big Island.

   “We always love to get together in Hilo and meet old friend and to make new ones,” Jason Braswell said after finishing third overall.

   Wife Melissa, who finished second for the women and 14^th overall, enjoyed the large event hosted by Big Dog Productions and was complimentary of the volunteers.

   “This was a good race, well organized and with a great turnout,” she said.  “This was one of my better races as I didn’t go out too fast and I didn’t burn out at the end.”

The Sekiyas

Husband and wife, Josh and KC Stallsmith, was the second married couple to cross the finish line and gave the Braswell’s a run for their money as the couple finished 12^th and 13^th overall in a race with 115 participants.

  Also traveling over from the Kona side to do Big Dog’s Valentine Day 3.2-miler was the Sekiya family with husband and wife Dale and Sharon and their son DJ.

  “We came to Hilo for the weekend and wanted to watch the Vulcan’s play baseball,” Dale Sekiya said.  “We read about this event in the newspaper and thought it would be a good idea to come out and participate.”

   The Vulcan’s dropped the first game of a double header on Saturday and the Sekiya’s left during the 8^th inning of the second game with the score tied 2-2.

   “We were really hungry and wanted to grab something to eat,” Sharron Sekiya said.  “We don’t often get a chance to see UHH play and coming out today to do this run was a good way to end out weekend.

   The overall winner was Volcano resident, Billy Barnett, who clocking in with a time of 17 minutes 33 seconds and was followed by Honokaa cross country star Chris Mosch in 17:53.

   The top woman was KC Stallsmith, 23:01, with Melissa Braswell, 23:17, taking second and Dawn Velasquez claiming third in 23:20.

  In the boyfriend girlfriend category it was Nick Mildon and Katie Mennenga showing what love is all about by running together and finishing 20^th and 21^st respectively in an identical time of 24:02.

  Isabel and Rick Camp, along with James and Shauna Hank, won the father/daughter group while Micah Kanehailua and his mom Esther won the mother/son division.

   There was even an Aunt/nephew division which was won by Waiakea Athletic Trainer, Kalei Namohala and her nephew, Micah.

   The best part about Sunday’s run/walk was to see the many new people that came out on Valentine’s Day to have fun with family and friends while getting some great exercise in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

    Love alone can’t cure all that’s ailing you, but if you’re one of the very fortunate people in this world that can give and receive love; and when you include exercise and a healthy diet, you are reaping the benefits of a truly wonderful life.

   Here’s wishing all of you a Happy Valentine’s Day everyday!

For complete results from the Big Dog’s Valentine’s Day event go to: https://waynejoseph.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/big-dogs-valentines-day-runwalk-results/

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