People lose their lives every year due to the simple common conditions of ‘old age’ including heart disease and stroke. But can something other than a laundry list of medications help you avoid these conditions or, at least increase the amount of time one has before they begin to be affected by these conditions.

                Recently, I’ve been hearing more and more stroke or heart attack horror stories about young people (40-50 years old). In the same time, it’s become common knowledge that America has a great issue with obesity and peoples’ lifestyles. So, do these two have anything in common? Can something as simple as exercise really make a huge difference in one’s health? Scientists of Medical News Today claim that, “exercise may be just as effective as drugs for treating common conditions, such as coronary heart disease and stroke”.  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/266841.php

The scientists analyzed 305 random controlled trials involving about 340 thousand people and found no statistical evidence that there was a difference between treating these conditions (coronary heart disease, stroke and, also diabetes) with drugs vs. exercise.  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/266841.php

                Strokes are caused by a blood clot in the brain where an artery becomes blocked or ruptured altogether. The clot can be caused by a number of reasons which you can see here : http://www.webmd.com/heart/atrial-fibrillation-stroke-11/stroke-causes-risks . As you can see, the majority of the controllable risk factors listed on WebMd would be counteracted by consistent exercise. These results are very similar to the results found in the previous study. As you can see, exercise is absolutely vital in the treating of certain diseases.  

                If we take a look at heart disease and the factors that commonly lead to heart disease, we again will see that several are the same factors that lead to stroke and that they can be counteracted by exercise. Take a look at the causes, and you’ll see the similarities with strokes: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/hdw/causes.html .

                I think that the scientists’ conclusion is very valid and should be considered proven due to the fact that the majority of common illnesses, including those that lead to death, are due to poor life habits. Being fat almost always is synonymous with having high blood pressure and cholesterol, both of  which are major factors in these illnesses. I feel like exercising in general is exercising the whole body and that by doing so you are keeping your body in shape as a whole; metaphorically keeping the rust off.