Not Exercising Worse For Your Health Than Smoking, Diabetes and Heart Disease, Study Reveals (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: We've all heard exercise helps you live longer. But a new study [published in the journal JAMA Network Open] goes one step further, finding that a sedentary lifestyle is worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease. Researchers retrospectively studied 122,007 patients who underwent exercise treadmill testing at Cleveland Clinic between January 1, 1991 and December 31, 2014 to measure all-cause mortality relating to the benefits of exercise and fitness. Those with the lowest exercise rate accounted for 12% of the participants. Dr. Wael Jaber, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and senior author of the study, said the other big revelation from the research is that fitness leads to longer life, with no limit to the benefit of aerobic exercise. Researchers have always been concerned that "ultra" exercisers might be at a higher risk of death, but the study found that not to be the case. "There is no level of exercise or fitness that exposes you to risk," he said. "We can see from the study that the ultra-fit still have lower mortality."

Comments

Worked for me

[MikeDataLink]

I had high blood pressure, borderline blood sugar levels, anxiety, and a big belly.

I started an evening exercise routine, lost 30 lbs. Blood pressure is perfect, blood sugar normal, anxiety gone, and my pants fit again.

Re:Worked for me

[alvinrod]

I've heard the opposite and that it actually takes pathetically little effort to get a large amount of benefit, as in 15 minutes of brisk walking each day and it's going to have an impact. This has even been previously covered on Slashdot.

If you want to look like Mr. Universe or something like that, obviously you'll need to do a substantial daily workout, but basic health benefits don't require all that much. Just because you don't look like a gym rat doesn't mean that you're completely unhealthy. The minimum amount of exercise might not let you run a marathon in anything approaching a good time, but it will mean you live longer and will probably be happier as well.