There is clear scientific evidence proving the benefit of regular physical activity on both the primary and secondary prevention of diabetes, hypertension, cancer (particularly breast and colon cancer), depression, osteoporosis and dementia. Furthermore, regular physical activity has been shown to be essential in achieving and maintaining weight control.
Finally, there is a clear correlation between physical activity and all-cause mortality. Without a doubt, exercise really is medicine and, in fact, it can be seen as the much needed vaccine to prevent chronic disease and premature death.
So armed with all this knowledge, why has organised medicine not declared an all-out war against physical inactivity?
If we had a pill that conferred all the confirmed health benefits of exercise, would we not do everything humanly possible to see to it that everyone had access to this wonder drug?
Would it not be the most prescribed pill in the history of mankind? I think we all know the answer to these questions.
We know that the immensely powerful pharmaceutical machine that exists in the world at present would see to it that everyone knew about this pill and that the healthcare systems of the world would pay for it, no matter what the cost …

Exercise is medicine

As a physiotherapist for the past 15 years and a long-time member of the Feldenkrais family,
I have become very sensitive to the fact that medicine has mostly ignored research on the “exercise pill”.
Instead, the healthcare system as it exists currently is completely enamoured with procedures and pharmaceuticals, while paying little more than lip service to prevention. It was against this backdrop that my major focus now as physio is to advocate for making physical activity assessment and prescription a standard part of the disease prevention and treatment.
Certainly, current evidence calls for nothing less than a global initiative to make this happen …
It’s time for organised medicine to join with fitness professionals to ensure that patients around the world take their exercise pill. There is no better way to improve health and longevity.

Positive health requires a knowledge of man’s primary constitution and of the powers of various foods, both those natural to them and those resulting from human skill. But eating alone is not enough for health. There must also be exercise, of which the effects must likewise be known. The combination of these two things makes regimen, when proper attention is given to the season of the year, the changes of the wind, the age of the individual, and the situation of his home. If there is any deficiency in food or exercise, the body will fall sick.
Hippocrates