Get your thirty minutes a day
Regular exercise can have long-term benefits, even if you are coping with chronic disease.

If you are coping with chronic disease, your condition should be an incentive for regular physical activity. Exercise can help to delay or at least manage the symptoms of many conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure, colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, cystic fibrosis, depression, and anxiety.

“Getting up and moving will improve not only the longevity of your life, but the quality of it,” says G.R. Wilson, M.D., of Dallas.

Dr. Wilson has worked for 33 years with patients who have chronic conditions. “You gain benefits with just 30 minutes of physical activity. Those benefits improve with frequency and intensity.”

Inactivity deteriorates health
According to Dr. Wilson, inactivity will hasten the onset of most chronic diseases. “Inactivity can also accelerate the inability to function in life,” he says.

Don’t be discouraged if the pains you regularly experience with your disease continue despite activity. “Ten years down the road,” says Dr. Wilson, “the ones who are exercising today will more likely be moving, and those who didn’t will more likely be incapacitated.”

Get your daily workout
To maintain good health, every person should accumulate 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity a day, five or more days a week. Dancing, brisk walking, and swimming all qualify as moderate-intensity exercise.

Increases in frequency, intensity, and duration will bring added benefits. If necessary, you can break your routine into shorter segments that add up to 30 minutes or more.

“We can gain significant benefits from frequent walking. If all you can do is walk across the living room, that’s fine. Pretty soon we get you walking a couple of blocks,” says Dr. Wilson.

“If you can’t use your legs, think outside the box and use your arms. You can do upper-torso exercises that would be just as beneficial.” Row a boat or use light hand weights. Take a spin in your wheelchair if you have one. Do anything to increase your heart rate and begin experiencing the benefits.

As Dr. Wilson says, “To move in the future, you’ve got to be moving now.”

Learn more
For more informaiton on the benefits of physical activity, refer to either of these Web sites:
The Cooper Insitue - www.cooperinst.org
Small Steps Campaign - www.smallstep.gov