Lack of Exercise Deadlier Than Obesity

Exercise

A new study conducted by medical researchers revealed that the lack of mobility or physical exercise can be more detrimental to a person's health than being overweight or obese, BBC reported.

According to the researchers, physical inactivity can increase the risk of an early death.

The study, led by Ulf Ekelund of the University of Cambridge's Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit, monitored data from 334,000 male and female participants for a span of 12 years.

For the duration of the study, they kept track of the participants' physical conditions including the size of their waists and their personal daily exercise routines.

Using data from the participants, the researchers noticed that those who followed basic exercise routines regularly had better health conditions than those who didn't.

In fact, the researchers pointed out that a physical activity, such as brisk walking for 20 minutes every day, could burn 90 to 110 calories. This is enough to effectively in reduce the chances of an early death by 16 to 30 percent.

Based on their findings, Ekelund explained that encouraging everyone to practice basic exercise routines can have a significant impact on a population's mortality rate.

"This is a simple message: just a small amount of physical activity each day could have substantial health benefits for people who are physically inactive," he told the Telegraph.

"Although we found that just 20 minutes would make a difference, we should really be looking to do more than this - physical activity has many proven health benefits and should be an important part of our daily life," he added

To emphasize the importance of physical mobility, the researchers noted that out of the 9.2 million deaths in Europe, 337,000 cases are attributed to obesity. As for deaths caused by the lack of exercise, these could go up more than 600,000.

According to Samantha Heller, an exercise physiologist and clinical nutritionist from the New York University Medical Center, physical activity is vital due to the structure of the human skeletal system.

"If you look at the human body, you will notice the odd, irregular shapes of the bones and muscles," she told Health day. "Just the musculoskeletal architecture of the human body shows that it is designed to move."

The study conducted by Ekelund and his team was published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.