subject: Exercise for Life is Best, but it's Never to Late to Start [print this page] Exercise for Life is Best, but it's Never to Late to Start
New research from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that what you are doing right now is the biggest determinant of your overall health and chances of gaining weight. Dr. Liu Ming at Harvard University recently released new data from the Harvard Alumni research study. For well over 100 years the School of Public Health at Harvard has followed the alumni of its campus and each year will send a health history questionnaire to the alumni tracking their personal health and correlating that to what they did while they were in college at Harvard allowing for the longest longitudinal dataset in the United States. Twice per decade the Public Health Department releases its most recent findings on diet, exercise, and overall health.
The most recent report looked at the diet and exercise habits of its alumni asking the question "does your past or present count more for your future health?" What the researchers found will make those with New Years Resolutions very happy; it turns out that while being active throughout your entire life is the best way to stave off obesity, heart disease, and even cancer; what you are doing right now is a very close second.
Surprising, says Dr. Ming, was the finding that what you did in the past, if you did not keep it up, is not very protective. Researchers have wondered for years what matters most when it comes to dietary and exercise habits. While being active throughout life is the best according to our research, even if you were not active, even overweight in the past, what you make of your current situation is the most important by far.
This research comes at an important time in the year with 2011 approaching fast and an estimated 50% of the United States population making New Years resolutions around losing weight and eating a healthier diet the research suggests that being physically active and losing weight even after years of sedentary living can in fact provide tremendous benefits.
In the Harvard Alumni Research Study an average of five hours of exercise per week provided the most benefits including lower rates of obesity. The five hours of exercise was not particular to one type, resistance or aerobic, and according to Dr. Ming, their earlier reports suggest that if the exercise is fun and enjoyable you are more likely to stick with it after the New Years rush is over.
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