Exercise
About This Therapy
“Exercise can be used like a vaccine to prevent disease and a medication to treat disease. If there were a drug with the same benefits as exercise, it would instantly be standard of care.”
- Robert Sallis, MD, Chairman of Exercise is Medicine (developed by the American Medical Association)
Regular exercise is one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your odds of living a long, healthy life. Scientists and health practitioners consider it the fountain of youth in regard to aging, and the wonderful thing is that it is essentially free. Over the years, countless scientific studies have linked regular exercise to numerous physical and mental benefits that extend long into old age. Given all we know about how good exercise is for our health, it truly is a wonder that so many Americans live a sedentary lifestyle.
Food Rx cares deeply about those of you living with IBD, and would like to make the following appeal: if you are currently neglecting your body’s need for regular activity – and you are not in the middle of a flare-up that would physically prevent you from strenuous movement – please consider talking with your doctor about beginning an exercise program. It is one of the most important conversations the two of you will have.
Exercise and Colon Cancer
Individuals with IBD have a much higher risk of developing colon cancer than the general population, and physical exercise has been shown to greatly reduce the risk of developing colon cancer.[1,2,3] If you are living with IBD, regular exercise can help offset your increased risk.
Additional Health Benefits
Regular physical exercise has scientifically been linked to many health benefits, including reduced risk of many diseases. Skeptics have suggested that the reason these studies show strong correlation between fitness and health is because people who exercise are already healthy to begin with. The reality, though, is that study after study has shown the same positive correlation between exercise and health, even when the study participants are all healthy to begin with.[4] There is simply no disputing the evidence: exercise gives you the best chance to staying younger longer, keeping your brain sharp, and your body healthy well into old age.
Writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, two geriatricians, Dr. Marco Pahor of the University of Florida and Dr. Jeff Williamson of Winston-Salem, N.C., state definitively that “…today it is recognized that virtually all of the diseases and conditions that lead to physical disability in older adults have as part of their etiology a component of personal lifestyle choices (eg, physical inactivity) in addition to biological aging and environmental exposure.”[5] In other words, if you choose to live a physically inactive lifestyle, you are willfully exposing yourself to a higher risk of chronic disease. A number of the key benefits of exercise are outlined below:
- Better health into your later years
- Reduced cognitive impairment over time
- Lower risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, arthritis, and obesity
- Lower risk of various types of cancer, including colon, breast, and lung
- Improved psychological wellbeing and reduced stress
- Lower risk of depression and higher self-esteem
Next Section: Why We Recommend It
Useful Links to Learn More
The Mayo Clinic
“Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity,” is an article for those who need some inspiration to get up and get active. The internationally-renown Mayo Clinic Foundation spells out seven of the key health benefits of regular exercise.
Rodale.com
“Exercise Eases Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” published Rodale News. Highlights some recent research done on the potential impact of exercise on treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease. “Researchers analyzed seven studies investigating the link between inflammatory bowel diseases and physical activity. Four of the five looked at quality of life and found that consistent physical activity improved participants’ quality of life. In people with IBD, physical activity was associated with decreased disease activity.”
The Wall Street Journal
“The Hidden Benefits of Exercise: Even Moderate Physical Activity Can Boost the Immune System and Protect Against Chronic Diseases.” Fantastic article highlighting lots of recent research into just how critical exercise is for individuals who wish to fight off chronic diseases and slow the aging process (and isn’t that all of us?). Consider this nugget contained in the article: regular exercise can reduce the risk of colon cancer by 60%. Now if that isn‘t a reason to go for a run today, we don‘t know what is.
US News & World Report
“5 Mind-Blowing Benefits of Exercise: think exercise is all about toned abs and weight loss? It also makes you happier and smarter.” Highlights work done by Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John Ratey that shows exercise reverses the detrimental effectsof stress, lifts depression, improves the way the brain learns, builds self-esteem and body-image, and gives you a feeling of euphoria (you know, the classic “runner‘s high”).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Benefits of Physical Activity
For those patients out there that may still be skeptical that regular exercise can protect the body from disease, perhaps they will believe it if the government says it. The government‘s CDC arm spells out how exercise can reduce the risk of developing colon cancer. This is an extremely important finding given that ulcerative colitis patients have a 5 times greater risk of developing this type of cancer, according to some studies.
Please refer to our links in the Mind-Body section of Food Rx for more info on Exercise
Selected References
[1] Lee, I.M. Physical activity and cancer prevention – data from epidemiologic studies. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2003; 35: (11), 1823–27.
[2] Wolin et al. Physical activity and colon cancer prevention: a meta-analysis. British Journal of Cancer, 2009.
[3] Landro, Lauren. The Hidden Benefits of Exercise: Even Moderate Physical Activity Can Boost the Immune System and Protect Against Chronic Diseases. The Wall Street Journal. Jan 1, 2010.
[4] Sun, Qi et al. Physical activity at midlife in relation to successful survival in women at age 70 years or older. Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(2):194-201.
[5] Williamson, J., et al. Evidence regarding the benefits of physical exercise. Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(2):124-125.
