Get physical

WHILE it’s long been known that physical activity massively reduces the risk of developing certain diseases, a major new study suggests exercise may also be as effective as drugs at treating conditions like heart disease and stroke.

Although people who suffer from such illnesses shouldn’t just throw their tablets away, the implication is that regular exercise should be as important a part of their treatment regime as medication.

The new study, by researchers at the London School of Economics, Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine, analysed the results of 305 trials involving nearly 340,000 people. It found being active was just as good as medicine for those with existing heart disease, and in the prevention of diabetes, and a more effective treatment than drugs for people who’d suffered a stroke.

Professor Mark Batt, a sport and exercise medicine consultant at Nottingham University Hospitals, says: “Physical activity is extremely important for health, and we know there’s compelling evidence for both the prevention of chronic diseases and now in treatment.

“There was already information about how effective exercise is in reducing the risk of developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and also depression, osteoporosis and others, but this study gives more information about its effectiveness as a treatment, and that’s really important.”

Of course it’s easier to reach for the pills than it is to exercise. But Batt points out that people don’t need to join a gym and make a huge effort to achieve the benefits of being active.

Just taking the recommended weekly 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise is enough to really make a difference, and this could be achieved through things like walking the kids to school briskly, regularly doing fairly vigorous gardening, or taking the stairs instead of the lift and actively commuting to work.

If you choose to do your recommended 150 minutes of exercise as 30 minutes five days a week, it doesn’t have to be done in 30-minutes blocks — it could be three 10-minute bursts a day.

However, you need to feel you’ve exerted yourself, so a leisurely amble isn’t fulfilling the guidelines.

Although there’s “a mountain of evidence” that physical activity is very good for health, Batt says there’s a lack of evidence about the exercise prescription that works best.

“We won’t find a perfect dose because we’re all different,” he explains. “What’s right for one person may not be for somebody else.”

Nevertheless, simply doing the minimum amount of recommended exercise could bring a wealth of benefits.