Exercise is medicine!

Recent findings of the Long-Term Follow-Up Study have shown that regular exercise leads to fewer heart problems and lowers the risk of disease.

Published: 11/1/2014

Recent LTFU Study research showed that survivors who met US national guidelines for vigorous exercise were half as likely to develop heart disease as those who did not meet exercise guidelines.

The guidelines call for 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise like playing team sports, jogging, etc., or 150 minutes per week—just 30 minutes per day on 5 days of the week— of moderate exercise like walking briskly, gardening, housework, etc. The research showed that the more people exercised, the fewer heart problems they later reported, even if they had risk factors for heart disease.

This study adds to the evidence that physical activity is crucial to good health. In fact, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Medical Association (AMA) have called for physical activity and exercise to be standard parts of disease prevention and medical treatment. They urge healthcare providers to “write exercise prescriptions” by referring their patients to qualified health and fitness professionals.

Even people with disabilities can benefit from increased physical activity. However, before starting any new exercise, it’s important to talk to your doctor about what’s safe for you and your specific condition.

The results of this study were recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Reference

Exercise and risk of major cardiovascular events in adult survivors of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma: A Report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. Jones LW, Liu Q, Armstrong GT, Ness KK, Yasui Y, Devine K, Tonorezos E, Soares-Miranda L, Sklar CA, Douglas PS, Robison LL, Oeffinger KC. J Clin Oncol. 2014 Nov 10;32(32):3643-50.