Not Exercising May Be Worse for Your Health Than Smoking

Image Credit: Total Shape

It’s common knowledge that there are many benefits to being physically fit, but one large new study found that skipping out on the gym is particularly bad for your health.

In fact, the study claims not exercising may be more harmful to your health than smoking.

These new findings were published in the journal JAMA Network Open. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic studied 122,007 patients from 1991 to 2014, putting them under treadmill testing and later recording mortality rates. Researchers found a clear connection between a longer, healthier life and high levels of exercise. The report calls for health care professionals to encourage patients to achieve and maintain a robust fitness routine.

Although it is widely understood that an active lifestyle can lead to a healthy life, the study concludes that a sedentary lifestyle is the equivalent of having a major disease and the simplest cure is exercise.

The study also took a look at the risk of being overactive and found that “ultra” exercisers do not face higher risk of death: the research consistently found that the more a person exercises the lower their mortality rates.