Exercise is Medicine
Have you taken your medicine today? What I'm asking is, are you exercising enough?

I'm going to admit that for me, the answer was no. Eating healthy food is a habit for me; getting great sleep- easy peasy, avoiding toxins, not smoking, moderate alcohol intake, no problem! Being consistent with exercises - now that's been my problem! Are you exercising enough to reap the benefits?

As you will hear in this podcast episode with Judy Foreman we all need to move more and more frequently. How do we accomplish this goal when we are stuck in an office or at a computer all day?

I was no exception. Many of my daily activities include sitting. Working on this website, knitting, driving, grading papers: sit down activities. Although I often stand up at my desk, it isn't enough to offset continuous sitting.

"Even just standing-not exercising, but simply not sitting-- would reduce premature deaths from all causes, a study of 16,586 Canadian adults showed. (Sadly, there's little evidence that standing desks help much.)" Perhaps a stand-up desk paired with a treadmill would be an improvement.

After reading the book Exercise is Medicine, I'm more motivated than I've ever been to make exercise a regular part of my life. Better late than never, right?
The Motivation to Exercise
There are many inspiring stories of people who are exercising and even competing in their golden years.

Exercise has so many benefits, as you will find as you listen to this episode and read the book. It boosts mood, improves brain function, helps prevent falls as we age, keeps our heart healthy, and helps slow down aging, among other advantages.
Sitting Kills
Even for those who enjoy exercise, sitting too much is detrimental to our health. Sitting for hours on end puts us at higher health risks such as:

* obesity and overweight
* diabetes
* heart disease
* adverse changes in artery function and structure
* weakened muscles and muscle wasting
* failure of mitochondria
* negative impact on telomeres (they keep DNA from unraveling during cell division)

Sitting makes us fat because it lowers the amount of food that is converted into energy. This excess body fat then raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and some cancers in multiple ways.
According to an Australian study that Foreman cites in the book, the more time the participants spent sitting, the more their blood sugar levels rose.

"Sitting is even bad for thin folks-sitting after a meal leads to a spike in blood sugar. Getting up after a meal can cut such spikes in half. Indeed, standing up and walking around just a little can double energy expenditure within minutes." So, stand up and clean the kitchen, take a walk around the block, or do a little after dinner dance!
The chapters in this book include:

* Aging
* Run for Your Life
* Sitting Kills
* The Heart of the Matter
* The Energy Converting Machine
* Bigger, Better, Stronger
* Boning Up
* Exercise and Cognition
* Exercise and Mood
* It Takes Guts: Exercise and the Microbiome
* Immunity, Inflammation, and Exercise
* Exercise and Cancer
* Those Tiny, Telltale Telomeres
* Exercise and Anti-Aging Pills