The Exercise Scam !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Source: Daily Dose
August 16, 2005 Author: Dr. W.C. Douglass

Sweat Swindle Time to revisit one of my core issues: The exercise scam. For many Americans, exercise is thought to be the tonic that cures all ills. Anyone can see that this isn't just a whim of the young and beautiful, either. Increasingly, folks in their twilight years are out there pounding their joints to dust, spinning themselves into a lather on stationary bikes, and rhythmically "sweatin' to the oldies" in aerobics venues across the country.

Why? Because the mainstream - including doctors - have sold them a bill of goods: That such heart-stressing, joint-murdering lunacy will keep them young. And this lie is fueling a gazillion-dollar fitness industry.

That's right: In case you haven't heard, all it takes is a 10-year contract at the local gym (a bargain at just $69.99 a month!), a hundred-dollar mini-tramp and a color-coordinated stair-stepper, plus so-and-so's series of workout videos for only 3 easy payments of $49.95, and you'll always be as straight, strong, and supple as a Romanian gymnast. Yes, to hear the Jane Fondas, Oprahs, and Richard Simmonses of the world tell it, vigorous exercise is positively the fountain of youth!

There's only one problem: People are dying as a direct result of such rambunctious-ness. Just 2 months ago (Daily Dose, 6/17), I wrote to you about the 57-year-old who collapsed dead after completing a cross-country bike trek. The month before that (5/13), I told you about the 50-something marathoner who couldn't wait to get back into racing despite the fact that it took an EMERGENCY BYPASS operation to save his life after he collapsed in the middle of this last race.

And these aren't the only examples. I've been writing about this stuff for years. One need not look hard to find the trail of casualties the modern exercise craze has left in its wake. But hey, as long as the checks clear (even if they're drawn from estates), the "sweat swindlers" don't care if you live or die.

Now, I know what you're probably thinking (especially if you've got a well-used treadmill taking up space in the next room): "Wait, doc - isn't there evidence proving the huff-and-puff crowd lives longer and healthier?"

Well, actually, no. In all my years of medicine, I've never seen any conclusive proof that vigorous daily exercise for its own sake does anything but DESTROY health. And it definitely offers no benefit toward turning back the years. For proof, check out this startling admission I found in the mainstream press. Keep reading...

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Noodle through it before you overdo it

Science proves once again that an old contrarian like me (actually advanced middle age) is right.

According to a recent online article in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, regular exercise did not make one iota's worth of difference in rates of age-related physical decline in a study of more than 800 male and female subjects of various ages.

Measured by periodic treadmill tests over an average period of approximately 8 years, both the exercisers and otherwise healthy (non-obese, I'm assuming) sedentary types experienced an identical plus-or-minus 20% decline in aerobic capacity for every decade past age 70.

This means that despite what running shoe makers, workout equipment manufacturers, sports drink purveyors, gym owners, and most mainstream MDs are saying, exercise does NOTHING to stave off the natural reduction in physical strength and stamina that comes with aging. Personally, I'm shocked to have heard about this in the mainstream media (the Associated Press reported on this a few weeks ago). Normally, I'd expect findings like these to be quietly swept under the gym carpet!

Look, I'm not saying you shouldn't play a few games of tennis (doubles only) or walk a round or two of golf a week if it gives you pleasure. I'm just saying - as I have been for 30 years - that you shouldn't do these things if you aren't up to them solely because you think it'll make you less likely to feel or seem your age.

If anything, over-exercising could actually be accelerating the aging process by destroying your joints or stressing out your heart. So maybe you should think twice before lacing up the Nikes or hoisting those barbells.

Fretting over too much sweating,

William Campbell Douglass II, MD