There’s a miracle cure for chronic illness and lifestyle disease — and it’s called exercise.
I named this blog Miraculos after seeing this word and ‘exercise is a miracle cure’ referenced in a blog I read and in the popular media.
Almost a decade ago, The Academy of Royal Colleges published a paper and case studies calling exercise and physical activity a ‘miracle cure’ or ‘wonder drug’ to treat and prevent many health conditions.
The paper showed how the main things dragging our health down — smoking, unhealthy eating, not moving enough, and drinking too much — can be addressed, at least in part, simply by moving more.
Even adding just 30 minutes of physical activity, five times a week, can help transform your health in big ways.
Movement as transformational
That said, I don’t believe that physical activity and exercise can singularly treat many chronic illnesses without the help of modern medicine.
Exercise may not be a miracle cure as in something supernatural. But miracles can leave us feeling transformed, amazed and wonderful. Therein lies the miracle of movement and exercise!
Most of the clients I coach are over the age of 50. My clients don’t work with me to lose weight or look jacked – they rarely care about how they look. They mainly care about how they feel and what movement and exercise helps them do.
A well-rounded movement and exercise practice can leave you feeling pretty wonderful – that’s miraculous too.
Aging well
Human bodies are truly a wonder. Our bodies keep us alive even when we do everything wrong with it. The interplay of genes, environment and habits miraculously preserves this living body often defying doctor’s predictions.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the human body. But we can influence how long we live and how well we age.
Aging will require most of us to slow down. But that doesn’t mean we can’t stay curious about our bodies and abilities.
Here are some basic truths about movement –
- Cardiovascular exercise boost heart, lung and mental health
- Strength training builds confidence for daily activities
- Stretching like yoga helps us cope with stress and
- Sports, play and dance help build social well-being
These movement practices will look very different for someone in their 30s vs someone in their 50s, 60s and beyond. If aging well is important then all these movement disciplines will invariably be a part of our lives – in whatever form works best.
Move – whether a miracle cure or not – simply because it feels so damn good and is key to aging well.