Health benefits of regular exercise

In aging and disease inactivity is associated with physical and functional decline. Regular exercise helps to prevent disease, to treat chronic diseases and to maintain functional capacity.

Thirty minutes of physical exercise most days of the week can make a difference. An exercise program can benefit people of all ages, even older people. There is good evidence that people who take regular exercise are healthier and have lower blood pressures than those who take none.

High blood pressure is the leading preventable cause of disease-specific death in women, the leading preventable cause of death in men due to cardiovascular disease and the second leading cause of disease-specific death among men and women combined.

There is evidence that regular exercise decreases coronary heart disease in normotensive and hypertensive people. This may be partly because they are thinner and tend to have more sensible dietary, drinking and smoking habits.

Recently, a study of the affects of different levels of exercise lowers blood pressure independently from any other dietary manoeuvres.

Among disease related to or caused by a sedentary lifestyle or insufficient activity and lack of regular exercise: arthritis, cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, mental health, obesity, osteoporosis, some form of cancer, stroke etc.
Health benefits of regular exercise