Benefits of exercise
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Whatever your age, there’s strong scientific evidence that being physically active can help you lead a healthier and happier life.
Exercise can reduce your risk of major illnesses, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer, and lower your risk of early death by up to 30%.
Health benefits
It’s essential to be physically active if you want to live a healthy and fulfilling life into old age.
People who do regular physical activity have a lower risk of:
- coronary heart disease and stroke
- type 2 diabetes
- bowel cancer
- breast cancer in women
- early death
- osteoarthritis
- hip fracture
- falls (among older adults)
- depression
- dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Research also shows that physical activity can boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy, as well as reducing your risk of stress.
What counts?
To stay healthy, the UK Chief Medical Officers’ Physical Activity Guidelines, state that adults should try to be active every day and aim to do at least 150 mi...
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