So much is said about being over-weight and the risk of significant diseases…cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and more. Over and over it’s heard, “Lose weight if want to live”! This is absolutely true! But newly published research in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition change and add to this statement….”Get MOVING if you want to live”!
An extremely large European study know as EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer & Nutrition) looked at 335,000 people over a twelve year period. The researchers at the University of Cambridge looked at many factors related to physical activity and the significant association between early death and inactivity being appreciably more important than being overweight is amazing.
It’s long been known that physical inactivity is associated with early death as well as with elevated cancer risk and heart disease. We all know that our body weights also go up when we’re inactive. We also know that being overweight is linked to early death….but what we see in this large study is that physical inactivity is associated with early death REGARDLESS OF A PERSON’S BODY BEING APPROPRIATE SIZE!
During the twelve years analyzing these hundreds of thousands of people, the researchers looked at height, weight, waist circumference and activity levels. To avoid all of the grizzly details, the fundamental finding was that EVERYONE enjoyed a reduction in early death risk by 16-30%…with the greatest affect being noted in people of normal body weight for their height. This dramatic reduction was enjoyed with the equivalent of simply a 20 minute brisk walk daily! To put this in perspective, in Europe over a year’s time there were 9.2 million deaths with 337,000 being directly attributed to obesity (a Body Mass Index greater than 30) whereas DOUBLE this number of deaths could be attributed to inactivity! This finding is simply astounding!
Many of our patients engage in so many varied efforts and diets and means to be healthy and enjoy longer life…when one dramatic answer is literally right under our noses…our feet! In our facility we work consistently with the five pillars of health: proper nervous system control, exercise, diet, sleep and attitude. The findings of this research simply put an exclamation point next to exercise!
So get out of the house, get on your feet and a life…and a big chance for lots more of it!
