What if there was one prescription drug that could prevent and treat dozens of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity? Would your doctor prescribe it? Would you take it?
Here’s the prescription: Exercise more days of the week than not.
That was the main message of “Exercise as Medicine,” a recent seminar hosted by the Wellness Center and featuring Wellness Center Manager Dan Levesque and Dr. Scott Jaynes of North Meadow Family Health in Peterborough. The seminar is part of a national campaign to encourage doctors to make sure they make exercise recommendations to their patients at risk for chronic disease. You can read more about this effort at Exercise is Medicine.
We’ve all learned that physical activity can prevent some of the most common chronic diseases such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and hypertension. But what most people don’t realize is that regular exercise can help reduce or eliminate our need for prescription medications–and that’s a good prescription all around.
As Dr. Jaynes explained, a primary care physician will see a patient with a chronic condition and most likely prescribe medication to control that condition. “But over a lifetime, what that may mean is that we’re all taking more than one medication, and that raises the risk for interaction problems,” he said.
Medical science can now accurately measure the benefits our bodies receive from regular exercise. “You may feel better because you exercise, but science can show us why you feel better,” he said.
As one example, scientists studied how glucose needs to circulate throughout the body. In Type 2 diabetes, however, the glucose isn’t circulating properly. It can’t. “Often a person with Type 2 diabetes is taking three different medications to control this process,” Dr. Jaynes said.
Most diabetics are told they must lose weight, not just change the way they eat. With a combination of diet and exercise, they can lose that weight, but aerobic exercise is also, on its own, reducing insulin resistance in the body. “The effect of aerobic exercise lasts 24 hours, which means regular exercise could be a pathway to using fewer medications for diabetics. The exercise will achieve the same benefit as the medication,” he said. “Plus that medicine may cost $150 a month and come with unpleasant side effects.”
Dan Levesque explained that exercise also positively affects cholesterol levels. After four weeks of regular exercise, participants in one study had lowered their “bad” cholesterol by 8 points and increased their “good” by 11 points, and that happened without a corresponding weight loss or change in diet. “Regular exercise trains your body to burn fatty acids,” he said.
Finally, exercise can bring down high blood pressure. High blood pressure, or hypertension is one of the most common ailments in our country and one that leads to serious complications such as heart disease and stroke. In fact, did you know that the kinds of ailments caused by inactivity and poor diet are the second leading cause of death in the United States? The first is tobacco use.
Scientists have determined that, after aerobic exercise, the arteries of the body remain open for a period of time. Open arteries mean increased blood flow and a reduction in blood pressure. In addition, regular exercise can actually create new blood vessels to feed the muscles, and no blood pressure medicine can do that. With more blood vessels, pressure on the entire system is reduced. Finally, exercise increases the production of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the muscles. That increase also results in a healthier blood pressure.
Studies show that four to six weeks of regular exercise can result in a 10-point drop in blood pressure. Lose 20 pounds and another 5 to 20 pressure points can be lost.
“The more exercise you do, the more you get out of it,” Dr. Jaynes said.
All adults should be getting either 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, according to guidelines put out by the Health and Human Services Department.
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