Exercise slows aging better than any miracle drug can!

Exercise helps you live longer!

If you could take a pill that would extend your life and help prevent memory loss and lose weight, how many hours would you stand in line to get that pill?  How much money would you pay for it?  More and more studies are suggesting that there is indeed such a medicine, but it doesn’t come in pill form. This “medicine” simply requires that you lace up your shoes and go for a walk.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend adults accumulate 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week. Recognizing that this goal is difficult for many people to achieve, researchers wanted to find out if exercising about half that time would still be helpful. In a recent study, researchers found that people who exercise just 15 minutes per day decreased their risk of death by 14% and extended their life expectancy by three years versus those who didn’t exercise at all.

Exercise can help you live longer and several recent studies indicate that exercise can also enhance the quality of that longer life by helping your brain stay healthy! Researchers analyzed data from a previous study and found that regular exercise helped delay cognitive decline. They also found that physically active people were 5-7 years younger (cognitively) than their non-active counterparts. This is significant because cognitive decline precedes many forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

The take-home message is: get moving! If you can’t carve-out 30 minutes to dedicate to a workout, don’t throw in the towel. Small amounts of exercise can have a huge impact on your quality of life and even just a few minutes can literally add years to your life!