Exercise is medicine
To effectively survive the wild our early ancestors developed physically to handle tools, react quickly to evade danger, and travel long distances in search for food. The traits that served them well would be passed onto the next generation and eventually their descendants, the modern man. Based on the physical characteristics of the modern human, evolutionary scientists have argued that we were all built to be efficient long distance runners, just like our ancestors. Our short toes and foot arches serve as springs, and our large gluteal muscles function to produce the forces necessary for running. These characteristics enabled our hunting gathering ancestors to excel in persistence hunting which involved stalking the prey until it exhausts itself before going in for the kill.
The human race has come a long way since prehistoric times, nowadays with an abundance of food and shelter survival is not of much concern anymore. These days running has become an esoteric leisure activity, and thanks to modern transportation travelling from place to place doesn’t require much effort at all. A consequence of this ease of access is that a majority of us have become sedentary beings and an example of the popular idiom “use it or lose it”. Our skeletal muscles have a proclivity to atrophy if they are not exercised regularly, a phenomenon known as deconditioning in physical therapy circles. Deconditioning is the culprit of many musculoskeletal disorders that cause pain, which precipitates a vicious cycle of more inactivity, more deconditioning and ultimately more pain.
To break this pain cycle the medicine of choice for most health professionals is exercise. Simply speaking, the more physically active we are the less we are affected by deconditioning and consequently the less pain we experience. The importance of exercise as a therapeutic agent also applies to many other ailments, such as cardiovascular disease, mental health disorder, and even cancer.
In addition to fighting disease, exercise has also been touted as the fountain of youth. Past the age of 30, it’s been found that people lose about 3-5% of muscle mass per decade of life secondary to the effects of ageing. So we can easily deduce that if we all kept fit and strong we could effectively slow down the ageing process and essentially stay younger for longer. Maintaining a high level of fitness also creates a buffer against morbidity allowing people (especially those of geriatric age groups) to remain functionally independent whilst combating illness, thus shortening the length of their post morbid rehabilitation.
Modern humans are a product of millions of years of evolution. Our bodies were designed to run, jump, sprint, carry and throw. It’s no surprise we don’t respond well to sedentarism. To maintain our health and longevity we need to do what’s natural for us - that is, be physically active.
