Top 10 Reasons You Should Be Active by Paul Hester, M.D.

While thirty percent of Americans say they get regular physical activity, forty percent say they get none. With all that’s known about the importance of being active and the benefits it provides to both physical and mental health, Americans’ refusal to start and stick with a regular exercise program is only a few clicks short of insane. Excuses just don’t cut it here, folks. End of story.

Here are 10 reasons why regular exercise is so important to your overall well-being and in achieving optimal health.

​1. Helps fight virtually every illness that shortens healthspan. At Ageology, we make a clear distinction between lifespan—the number of years between a person’s first breath and his or her last—and healthspan, the number of years that person spends being healthy and not disabled. Heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis all shorten healthspan. These illnesses, which are typically associated with getting older, can potentially make the last 20 years of a person’s life a daily hell of medical interventions, drug side effects and lack of precious independence. Regular physical activity substantially reduces risk of all these diseases and their subsequent consequences.

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