Study finds lack of exercise deadlier than smoking, diabetes

Exercising can keep you healthy late into life.

But could the lack of exercise kill you?

According to an expansive study, it could. Or, at least, not exercising is more deadly than heart disease, smoking and diabetes.

The study out of Cleveland examined 122,000 patients for 23 years (1991-2014).

“This is the first study that has shown that there’s not a group that it’s not good for,” Brenda Rooney with Gundersen Health System in La Crosse said. “Even better for older adults because it helps with bone strength as well as maintaining independence.”

Rooney added that even a little exercise can be helpful.

“The general recommendation, we say, is to get 30 minutes of activity at least five days a week,” Rooney said. “The more you do that the better.”

Rooney says you don’t need to rush out to buy that gym membership, however.

“It doesn’t have to be, that you go to a fitness facility,” she said. “It can be raking your leaves, shoveling snow. It can be walking an extra 10 minutes from your car to the grocery store.”

The American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week.