Physical inactivity has been called the biggest public health problem of the 21st century. Of course, just because someone calls it that doesn’t mean it’s true; in fact, physical inactivity ranks down at #5 in terms of risk factors for death, and #6 in terms of risk factors for disability. Diet is by far our greatest killer, followed by smoking.
But, there is irrefutable evidence of the “effectiveness of regular physical activity in the prevention of several chronic diseases—cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression, osteoporosis, and premature death”—helping to add years to our life, and above all, “life to our years.” It truly may be survival of the fittest.
How much exercise do we need? In general, the answer is the more the better. Currently, “most health and fitness organizations advocate a minimum of a thousand calories of exercise a week,” which is equivalent to walking an hour a day five days a week. Seven days a week, though, may be even better in terms of extending one’s lifespan.
Exercise is so important that not walking an hour a day is considered a high risk behavior, alongside smoking, excess drinking, and being obese. Having any one of these effectively ages us three to five years in terms of risk of dying prematurely, though interestingly those who ate green vegetables on a daily basis did not appear to have that same bump in risk. Even if broccoli-eating couch potatoes live as long as walkers, there are a multitude of ancillary health benefits to physical activity such that doctors are encouraged to prescribe it, to signal to the patient that “exercise is medicine.”
Researchers at the London School (of Economics and Political Science), Harvard, and Stanford compared exercise to drug interventions in a study highlighted in my video, Longer Life Within Walking Distance, and found that exercise often worked just as well as drugs for the treatment of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. There’s not a lot of money to fund exercise studies. So, one option would be to require drug companies to compare any new drug to exercise. In cases where drug options provide only modest benefit, patients deserve to understand the relative impact that physical activity might have on their condition.
Exercise is just one of four lifestyle behaviors found to significantly extend our lifespan. See my video, Turning the Clock Back 14 Years.
Other longevity videos include:
- The Benefits of Caloric Restriction Without the Actual Restricting
- What Women Should Eat to Live Longer
- Methionine Restriction as a Life Extension Strategy
- Increased Lifespan From Beans
- Nuts May Help Prevent Death
More videos on exercise:
- Is it the Diet, the Exercise, or Both?
- Standing Up for Your Health
- Enhanced Athletic Recovery Without Undermining Adaptation
- How Much Exercise to Sustain Weight Loss
What about the stress it can put on our bodies? See:
- Preventing Exercise Induced Oxidative Stress with Watercress
- Reducing Muscle Soreness with Berries
- Reducing Muscle Fatigue with Citrus
In health,
Michael Greger, M.D.
PS: If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my free videos here and watch my live year-in-review presentations Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death, More Than an Apple a Day, From Table to Able, and Food as Medicine.
