For thousands of years, doctors have promoted diet and exercise as the keys to a healthy life. However, in the early 1900s, doctors began to emphasize treating diseases rather than preventing them, due to the availability of drugs and surgery, diminishing the importance of exercise in the process. While most Americans are aware of the benefits of exercise, only 20 percent engage in the recommended amount of physical activity, which is 150 minutes per week of aerobics and at least two days of strength training. Amazingly, over 80 millions Americans and over half of baby boomers, who range in age from 52 through 70, are not active at all. Aerobic activity like running, biking, or walking increases your heart rate, breathing and flow of oxygen. Strength training, which helps increase muscle and bone mass, can include weight lifting, using your own body as a weight with push-ups and sit-ups, and yoga.  

Many doctors consider exercise to be one of the most effective medicines or forms of therapy, including for individuals with genetic diseases. While it has always been known to provide many benefits, research has begun to provide insight into the positive impact it has on areas such as the brain. Exercise increases the flow of blood to the brain, leading to growth of new blood vessels and neurons, while also preventing the degeneration of brain cells.  It also improves mood (reduces anxiety and depression), energy, focus, sleep, memory, and learning.  Aerobic exercise can increase the size of regions of the brain that are responsible for memory, such as the hippocampus. Physical activity reduces the aging of cells and allows one to live a longer life. Exercise is considered the best method to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and stroke, which are some of the leading causes of death. Studies of mice show that exercise can reduce the effects of aging among those with a condition that caused them to age faster, appearing the same as healthy mice. As we discussed in class, the question is whether outcomes like these are generalizable to others, including humans.

Getting into an exercise routine requires a large amount of motivation and commitment. It is easier to avoid doing it now, but it has many long-term benefits. It lays the groundwork for living a healthy and active lifestyle, which can carry over into the decisions one makes about eating and drinking. I have found that participating in organized sports like soccer and track help make exercise a key part of my daily life. It is important for individuals to realize that they can get all the health benefits of exercise without any equipment, and in fact, a number of everyday activities like using the stairs instead of an elevator, gardening or mowing the lawn, and doing work around the house like cleaning and cooking are all forms of exercise. Additionally, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) has been found to provide the same health benefits in a shorter period of time, such as 10 minutes, as a longer workout lasting 50 minutes, which can be beneficial to people who do not feel they have the time for extended exercise sessions.

Most research on exercise has focused on improving the performance of athletes, but that is beginning to change. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will soon be conducting a study of nearly 3,000 sedentary individuals, collecting samples of blood, muscle, fat, the brain and lungs, from human and animal participants, to examine the benefits of exercise on the body. The hope is that in the future, doctors will be able to prescribe exercise instead of medicine, with each individual given a personalized workout plan to help them maximize their well-being.
Sources

• Oaklander, Mandy. “The New Science of Exercise.” TIME. Sept. 2016. Web.  <http://time.com/4475628/the-new-science-of-exercise/>
• http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/upshot/why-you-should-exercise-no-not-to-lose-weight.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/
• http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110
• https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6317a1.htm
• http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/can-exercise-keep-you-young/
• http://www.nytimes.com/well/guides/really-really-short-workouts
• http://www.romquickgym.com/assets/gibala_currsportsmedrep-6_2007.pdf
• Running Picture: http://www.expertrain.com/SiteAssets/Images/bestfriend.jpg
• Brain Picture: http://live2100.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/exercise_brain.jpg