February 25, 2014
Did you make a New Year’s resolution to exercise more this year? Turns out, it’s the one resolution you definitely should keep! According to a new report, exercise can be as effective as many frequently prescribed drugs in reducing deaths among people who have been diagnosed with several common and serious conditions, including heart disease and diabetes. Their results, comparing various drugs and exercise, consistently showed that drugs and exercise produced almost exactly the same results.
An example demonstrated in the study was that people with heart disease who exercised but did not use commonly prescribed medications for heart disease had the same risks of dying from heart disease and the same rate of surviving as patients taking those drugs.
“Over all, Dr. Ioannidis said, ‘our results suggest that exercise can be quite potent’ in treating heart disease and the other conditions, equaling the lifesaving benefits available from most of the commonly prescribed drugs, including statins.”
Read more about this fascinating study here.