Rise up, Americans, and exercise!

Government tells us what we already know:
Exercise is good for you

July 12, 1996
Web posted at: 1:25 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Practicing what they were about to preach, Vice President Al Gore, his wife Tipper, and Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala walked briskly to a Thursday news conference. They were on their way to announce the first-ever report on exercise from the U.S. surgeon general.

"Today's report is both an alarm clock and a road map. It sounds an urgent wake-up call about the risks of our couch-potato culture," Vice President Al Gore said.

Acting Surgeon General Dr. Audrey Manley's report, unveiled just days before the beginning of the 1996 Olympic Games, ruefully noted that more than 60 percent of U.S. adults don't exercise regularly, and 25 percent aren't active at all.

Younger Americans are also a concern because "almost 15 percent of young people aren't physically active at all," said Shalala. "We face a great public health challenge."

The surgeon general's Report on Physical Activity and Health was compared by the White House to the landmark 1964 report on the risks of smoking, also issued by the surgeon general. The report represents the first comprehensive review of the scientific evidence linking physical exercise and health.

Like the 1964 smoking report, this report tells a lot of people what they knew but didn't want to accept: Reams of evidence document the fact that resisting exercise increases your risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and colon cancer.

"Poor diet and sedentary lifestyles contribute to the deaths of another 300,000 Americans each year," Gore said.

Make it a habit

The remedy isn't exercise of Olympic proportions, say the experts, just moderate exercise on most days. You could swim for 20 minutes, walk for 30, garden for about 45 minutes, or wash cars for an hour a few times a week to get the workout you need to stay in shape.

That's not to say that it's easy to find the time to get a workout. But where there's a will, there's a way, as Teresa Ketron knows. She says that when her baby, Ben, wakes up at 4 or 5 in the morning, the family goes for a brisk walk together.

"Ben and I usually walk everywhere. We walk to the grocery store, to the bank and to the post office. So every errand we have to run we usually walk," she said.

"It's really important to recognize that moderate activity can have benefits -- something as simple as 30 minutes of walking a day with someone you like," said Dr. Sidney Smith of the American Heart Association.

Rather than considering exercise as an optional activity, health psychologist Nancy Adler says people should make it a part of their daily routine. "It's much easier if you make a single decision, and structure your life so that it becomes a habit."

Correspondents Jeff Levine and Don Knapp contributed to this report.

Related stories:

• Workouts shouldn't have to hurt - June 9, 1996
• Treadmills set pace for workout machines - May 8, 1996
• Study links obesity in pregnancy to birth defects - Apr. 10, 1996

Related sites:

• American Medical Association
• The Good Health Web
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• National Institutes of Health

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