Health Insurance Daily

Most U.S. Adults Still Don't Exercise

More than half of U.S. adults still do not get a minimum amount of daily exercise recommended to help stave off obesity and chronic disease, according to government figures.

Lack of regular exercise is closely intertwined with obesity, and both factors are known risks for the leading killers of American adults, including heart disease, diabetes, and several forms of cancer.

Sixty-four percent of Americans over 20 years old now qualify as overweight, while 30% are classified as obese, according to government figures.

Overall exercise rates remain low in a nation where daily suburban highway commutes and office cubicles long ago replaced farm and factory work, and television, computers, and video games now overwhelmingly dominate leisure time.

Those forces have largely overwhelmed messages extolling the benefits of regular exercise, says Tegan Boehmer, PhD, an epidemiologist at the St. Louis University School of Public Health.

To read this article in its entirety, click on WebMD Medical News.

posted by Mike @ 3:50 PM