NEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters Health) -- Armed with modern conveniences such
as cars, computers and electric lawn mowers, Americans are less physically
active, and may be digging their own graves in the war against chronic disease,
according to researchers.
These types of technological advances have led to increasing levels of
inactivity and contributed to burgeoning rates of heart disease, diabetes, and
certain cancers over the past century, Frank Booth and colleagues at the
University of Missouri-Columbia, report.
They call the prevalence of inactivity-related illnesses a "silent
epidemic," responsible for 250,000 premature deaths and about $1 trillion in
healthcare costs each year.
Deaths from heart disease have increased 29-fold since 1900, and over the
past 40 years rates of diabetes have increased 6-fold and the number of obese
Americans has doubled. These statistics are likely to become even more
discouraging as the baby-boom generation continues to age.
"Using public health as the final outcome measure, progress in the war
against chronic disease is largely a stunning failure," Booth and colleagues
write. "A new approach must be found."
In their report, published in the February issue of the Journal of Applied
Physiology, the authors call on the National Institutes for Health to spearhead
research on the link between exercise and chronic disease.
Specifically, this research should home in on the biological mechanism by
which exercise helps prevent disease. For example, while aerobic activity can
lower the risk of heart disease and weight-bearing exercise can lower the risk
of osteoporosis, the mechanisms are not well understood.
"Understanding the biochemical, molecular, and cellular mechanisms of
physical inactivity will provide the scientific foundation for appropriate
individual prescription of physical activity for health," the researchers
conclude.
"Indeed, with the possible exception of diet modification, we known of no
single intervention with greater promise than physical exercise to reduce the
risk of virtually all chronic diseases simultaneously," the authors note.
