Benefits of Being Active

What if there was one prescription that could prevent and treat dozens of diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity? Would you prescribe it for your patients? Certainly.”¹

—R.E. Sallis

It is difficult to find a component of health that physical activity does not have the potential to improve. In fact, there is a vast and growing field of research on how working one’s body can improve well-being, longevity and many medical conditions.^2,3

In general, physical activity refers to any activity which moves the skeletal muscles of the body and increases energy output, whereas exercise refers to structured and repetitive physical activity with a specific intent—usually to improve some component of physical fitness.^4,5 Physical fitness refers to the development of specific skills including strength, flexibility, endurance, balance, and agility.⁴ Presumably, similarly matched physical activity and exercise forms (e.g., walking briskly for a job versus walking briskly for exercise) have equivalent health effects. Accordingly, both exercise and unstructured physical activity have important health benefits and should be strongly encouraged.

Research shows that higher levels of physical activity are linked to seemingly countless benefits. These include, but are certainly not limited, to the following⁶:

• It lowers all-cause mortality rates^5,7 and increases life span.⁸ Lack of physical activity, on the other hand, increases our risk of developing cardiovascular disease, cancer (e.g. of the colon and breast), type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.^5,9
  
  
• Regular exercise mitigates the negative effects of aging, even if a person does not start exercising until later in life.² A 2018 trial found it improves overall physical function in long-term nursing home patients.¹⁰
  
  
• Numerous prospective epidemiologic studies have found that physical activity reduces our risk of dementia.¹¹ A recent study found that routine exercise (tai chi, resistance training, aerobic, and multicomponent) all improved cognitive function of community-dwelling adults over age 50, regardless of their baseline cognitive status.¹²
  
  

There is also evidence that exercise preserves our ability to perform our activities of daily living and improves higher order skills (executive functioning) in both children and adults.¹³ Our attention span, processing speed, and memory are also enhanced by exercise.¹⁴ Kids who exercise perform better academically in many areas.¹⁵