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Another day brings us another study proving how important
exercise can be as a treatment for a variety of ailments and
illnesses.
This study was directed by Dr. John Ioannidis, of Stanford
University.
The New York Times summarizes the results:
Exercise
can be as effective as many frequently prescribed drugs in treating some of the
leading causes of death, according to a new report. The study raises important
questions about whether our health care system focuses too much on medications
and too little on activity to combat physical ailments.
The Times points out that despite the best efforts of many people, the
medical profession has spent very little time or effort testing the
value of exercise as a treatment. Discovering new medication is sexier. It
earns everyone more fame and more money. Besides, it’s easier to convince
someone to take a pill than it is to get him to go to the gym four times a
week.
The Times summarizes the results:
The
results consistently showed that drugs and exercise produced almost exactly the
same results. People with heart disease, for instance, who exercised but did
not use commonly prescribed medications, including statins,
angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors or antiplatelet drugs, had the same
risk of dying from — or surviving — heart disease as patients taking those
drugs. Similarly, people with diabetes who exercised had the same relative risk
of dying from the condition as those taking the most commonly prescribed drugs.
Or as the researchers wrote in statistics-speak, “When compared head to head in
network meta-analyses, all interventions were not different beyond chance.”
On the
other hand, people who once had suffered a stroke had significantly less risk
of dying from that condition if they exercised than if they used medications —
although the study authors note that stroke patients who can exercise may have
been unusually healthy to start with.
Only in
chronic heart failure were drugs noticeably more effective than exercise.
Diuretics staved off mortality better than did exercise.
2 comments:
I've learned to tell doctors "NO" to some of their prescription recommendations.
It starts with a medication to lower blood pressure. Eventually, this drug produces some undesirable side-effects. So they recommend a second drug to counteract the side-effects of the first drug. Then the second drug produces side-effects, which then comes with a recommendation to take a third drug, and so on, and so on.
This happened to my dad, and he eventually thought he was loosing his mind. His mind was fine. The lose of cognitive clarity was due to all the drugs that his doctor was pushing on him. He changed doctors, was taken off all the unnecessary drugs, and his mental clarity returned.
Conventional doctors are wondering why more and more people are switching to alternative medicine. It may be because people are getting tired of expensive and mostly unnecessary drugs being pushed on them with ugly side-effects.
I am very sensitive to medication and have found some very good alternatives.
I cannot use any aspirin products. My doctor has me taking a large amount of turmeric as a blood thinner.
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