Wonderful feature article in the current Time magazine, about how exercising can help overcome diseases and such. I took the article to the gym, telling some fellow workout artists about it, seeking their reaction.
None seemed really impressed.
Now, most of us agree exercise is good for your health. Nothing new there. But science suggesting exercise can help cure diseases? That's news, to me, and fantastic. Bring out the drums and throw a parade.
The article quotes a doctor who treats genetic diseases such as muscular dystrophy as saying gene therapy hasn't delivered for him in 25 years, while the most effective treatment available to his patients is exercise.
"If there were a drug that could do for human health everything that exercise can, it would be the most valuable pharmaceutical ever developed," says the article by Mandy Oaklander.
The article tells of a study of mice suffering from a genetic disease, and of how half of them were left sedentary, while the other half were coaxed to run three times a week. The sedentary mice remained in bad shape, while the running mice improved so much they became almost indistinguishable from healthy mice.
"Doctors, researchers, scientists -- even ancient philosophers -- have long claimed exercise works like a miracle drug. Now they have proof," says the subhead to the article.
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