Exercise or Meds? Science Has the Answer

With all of the evidence supporting the use of exercise for the treatment and prevention of various chronic diseases, authors at Stanford decided to do a side-by-side comparison of the effectiveness of exercise and drug interventions on mortality outcomes. They compared a total of 305 randomized controlled trials assessing either exercise or a pharmaceutical intervention on mortality outcomes associated with coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and diabetes... And what did they find?!

Exercise performed similarly, and in some cases BETTER, than common pharmaceutical drugs. The only instance where exercise was not as good as a drug intervention was with the instance of heart failure, where diuretics outperformed. Exercise performed SUPERIOR to anticoagulant and antiplatelet therapy in stroke prevention! Exercise was also JUST AS EFFECTIVE as statins, beta-blockers, ACE-inhibitors, and others!... How cool is that?! And there are no negative side effects associated with exercise!

I am NOT suggesting anyone should discontinue their medication for these diseases. I am simply reviewing some pretty cool research on exercise! Here is the study: PMID: 26476429

And that’s not the only study. Results from this recent Randomized Controlled Trial (PMID: 34347008) showcase the incredible impact that exercise has on overall health, and how it can work much better than medications. This study showed that exercise is able to significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular related death, even in patients that are RESISTANT TO MEDICATION INTERVENTIONS! How cool is that?!!!

AND THE BEST PART: The only side-effects you get from exercise are; you might feel a little stronger, faster, more confident, less stressed, more motivated, and harder to kill. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?!

Listen to the Kickback Science episode titled: “VO2max, The Single Most Important Metric of Your Health” to learn about more truly incredible benefits of exercise.