Exercise: The miracle cure and the role of the doctor in promoting it
PainSci summary of this paper?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided at the bottom of the page, as often as possible. ★★★☆☆?3-star ratings are for typical studies with no more (or less) than the usual common problems. Ratings are a highly subjective opinion, and subject to revision at any time. If you think this paper has been incorrectly rated, please let me know.
This is the primary authoritative source of the quote “exercise is the closest thing there is to a miracle cure.”
original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
The big four “proximate” causes of preventable ill-health are: smoking, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity and alcohol excess. Of these, the importance of regular exercise is the least well-known. Relatively low levels of increased activity can make a huge difference. All the evidence suggests small amounts of regular exercise (five times a week for 30 minutes each time for adults) brings dramatic benefits. The exercise should be moderate – enough to get a person slightly out of breath and/or sweaty, and with an increased heart rate. This report is a thorough review of that evidence.
Regular exercise can prevent dementia, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, depression, heart disease and other common serious conditions — reducing the risk of each by at least 30%. This is better than many drugs.
related content
- “Exercise: The miracle cure and the role of the doctor in promoting it,” {Academy of Medical Royal Colleges}, AOMRC.org.uk, 2015.
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Exercise is Power: Resistance Training for Older Adults on YouTube.com.- “Exercise as medicine - evidence for prescribing exercise as therapy in 26 different chronic diseases,” B K Pedersen and B Saltin, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 2015.
- “Physical activity protects from incident anxiety: A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies,” Felipe B Schuch, Brendon Stubbs, Jacob Meyer, Andreas Heissel, Philipp Zech, Davy Vancampfort, Simon Rosenbaum, Jeroen Deenik, Joseph Firth, Philip B Ward, Andre F Carvalho, and Sarah A Hiles, Depress Anxiety, 2019.
- “Semantic memory functional MRI and cognitive function after exercise intervention in mild cognitive impairment,” J Carson Smith, Kristy A Nielson, Piero Antuono, Jeri-Annette Lyons, Ryan J Hanson, Alissa M Butts, Nathan C Hantke, and Matthew D Verber, J Alzheimers Dis, 2013.
- “Beneficial associations of low and large doses of leisure time physical activity with all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality: a national cohort study of 88,140 US adults,” Min Zhao, Sreenivas P Veeranki, Shengxu Li, Lyn M Steffen, and Bo Xi, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2019.
These ten articles on PainScience.com cite Academy of Medical Royal Colleges 2015 as a source:
- Quite a Stretch — Stretching science has shown that this extremely popular form of exercise has almost no measurable benefits
- A Guide to Sciatica Treatment for Patients — A guide to buttock and leg pain (which may or may not involve the sciatic nerve)
- Save Yourself from Plantar Fasciitis! — Plantar fasciitis explained in great detail, including every possible treatment option, and all supported by recent scientific research
- Save Yourself from Shin Splints! — Causes and treatment options for shin splints explained and discussed in great detail, especially shin pain caused by myofascial trigger points, compartment syndrome, medial tibial stress syndrome, and stress fracture
- Save Yourself from Muscle Strain! — Muscle strain (pulled muscle) and muscle pain explained and discussed in great detail, plus every imaginable treatment option
- Strength Training for Pain & Injury Rehab — Why building muscle is easier, better, and more important than you thought, and its role in recovering from injuries and chronic pain
- Why So “Negative”? — Answering accusations of negativity, and my reasons and methods for debunking bad treatment options for pain and injury.
- Frozen Shoulder Guide — An extremely detailed & readable guide to one of the strangest of all common musculoskeletal problems, for both patients and pros
- A Rational Guide to Fibromyalgia — The science of the mysterious disease of pain, exhaustion, and mental fog
- Get in the Pool for Pain — Aquatic therapy, aquajogging, water yoga, floating and other water-based treatment and injury rehab options
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Effectiveness of customised foot orthoses for Achilles tendinopathy: a randomised controlled trial. Munteanu 2015 Br J Sports Med.
- A Bayesian model-averaged meta-analysis of the power pose effect with informed and default priors: the case of felt power. Gronau 2017 Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology.
- The neck and headaches. Bogduk 2014 Neurol Clin.
- Agreement of self-reported items and clinically assessed nerve root involvement (or sciatica) in a primary care setting. Konstantinou 2012 Eur Spine J.
- Effect of NSAIDs on Recovery From Acute Skeletal Muscle Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Morelli 2017 Am J Sports Med.