We all know that exercise helps you to live longer. The new study took this a step further, discovering that a sedentary lifestyle is as dangerous to your health as having diseases such as diabetes and heart disease or other highly risky behaviors such as smoking. The results of the research conducted by the cardiologists of the Cleveland Clinic have been described as extremely surprising even by the doctors themselves, who have stated that not training has an equal or worse prediction, regarding premature death, to be hypertensive, diabetic or regular smokers. The study was published in the journal JAMA Network Open. We talked about it with Professor Daniela Lucini, Head of Medicine for Humanitas Exercise.

The physical exercise to be prescribed as medicine

Sport should be prescribed as a medicine for the treatment and prevention of a very high number of diseases.
The researchers retrospectively studied 122,007 patients who had been tested with treadmills at the Cleveland Clinic between 1 of January 1991 and 31 of December 2014 to measure the association between general mortality rates (for all causes) and cardiorespiratory fitness. The ones with the lowest exercise rate were 12% of the participants.
“Cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are the most expensive diseases in the United States – stated Dr. Jordan Metzl, doctor of sports medicine at the special surgery hospital and the author of the book “The Exercise Curee”-. We spend more than $200 billion a year on treating these diseases and their complications. Instead of paying huge sums for the treatment of the disease, we should encourage our patients and communities to be active and practice daily.

The sport prolongs the life

Fitness leads to a longer and happier life. The patients are often afraid of being too much exerted, which is often overestimated.

The quantity and quality of exercise recommended is something that should be discussed with a specialist, but in general it is good to keep in mind that the benefits of exercise are valid in all ages, both in men and women, especially in children and young people.

It is much more dangerous not to do anything than to train in an improper way. However, it is important to always do it according to your state of health and age.

Exercise is also good not only for the body, but also for the mind.

When comparing a person who does not exercise much with someone who does exercises regularly, the health risk for the first person increases by 390%.

“We are made to walk, run, do and exercise – concluded the doctors who conducted the American research -. It is all about getting up and moving”.