Sweat it out to stay healthy

Sweat it out to stay healthy
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/08/18/10147413.html
The Telegraph Published: August 18, 2007, 00:05
London: Public health experts have warned people need to take "vigorous" exercise for at least 20 minutes three times a week to stay healthy.

Just taking the odd stroll is not enough to "maintain and improve health," according to the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. They now want vigorous exercise to be "explicitly" recommended.

They fear their original guidance from 1995, which recommended adults aged 18-65 should engage in at least 30 minutes' moderate exercise on most days of the week, has been "misinterpreted".

Writing in Circulation, they stated: "There are people who have not accepted, and others who have misinterpreted, the original recommendation. Some people continue to believe that only vigorous intensity activity will improve health while others believe that the lightest activities of their daily lives are sufficient to promote health." The experts' original advice was adopted in 1996.

In the UAE, a cardiologist said the local weather poses a handicap for outdoor sports and the high cost gym membership deters some people from exercising.

"Twenty per cent of the UAE adult population has diabetes and only half of them really exercise," said Dr J.V. Sebastian, head of cardiology department at Welcare Hospital. "People should choose a sport or exercise they can do easily and enjoy and then stick to it," he said.
With additional inputs from Emmanuelle Landais/Gulf News Staff Reporter