A Little And Often Is Still The Golden Rule

This weeks blog is by practice partner and senior physiotherapist Mary McGuinness A lecture given by Doctor Mike Evans lent support the observations I’ve made over the course of my  23 years in practice. I’ve worked with a wide range of people from top athletes to the very sedentary. It always appeared to me that the patients who  ” walked everywhere”, or took regular light exercise appeared to enjoy better health in their latter years.The research  discussed in the lecture shows that with regular exercise

• Patients with arthritic knees experienced 47% less pain and disability.
• Older patients were 50% less likely to progress to dementia and Alzheimer’s .
• 58% of people at risk of diabetes were less likely to progress to frank diabetes.
• In a population of 10,000 students 23% had a lower risk of death over the 12 years studied.
• Exercise is the number one treatment of fatigue
• Exercise has been proven over and over again to improve our quality of life.

The research shows that more exercise is  generally better but the rate of return to your health is less after 20 to 30 minutes a day.So if we walk or engage in other exercise regularly we can enjoy all the benefits listed above!!The message I took from this lecture and from observing my patients over the years is that you don’t have to be  sporty, or gym enthusiast to benefit from exercise. Something  as easy and enjoyable as walking the dog has more or less the same benefits as a tough exercise regime.Music to my ears!!