Exercise is medicine

An apple a day is prescribed in folklore as a way to avoid healthcare services.  More evidence has just surfaced to support exercise as a way to stay out of the hospital, particularly with older adults.  The benefits of exercise in disease prevention, particularly cardiovascular disease, are clearly supported in a wealth of studies in professional literature.  However, one recent study compares health care costs of older adults who exercise to those who do not, finding less need for healthcare services in the exercising group. 

Preventing Chronic Disease, a peer-reviewed journal published by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, is the source for a study entitled "Managed-Medicare Health Club Benefit and Reduced Health Care Costs Among Older Adults," funded by The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and conducted by Group Health Cooperative and the University of Washington (UW).  This study compared the health care costs of almost 5,000 individuals enrolled in a formal exercise program tailored to seniors to 9,000 individuals not taking part in the same exercise regimen over a 2-year period.  The findings of the study support the assertion that exercise is not only good for your health, but also good for your wallet (and your insurance company’s payments for your healthcare). 

The specific findings of the study demonstrate that:

1. ·      All exercise participants healthcare expenses were, on average, $500 lower than the non-exercisers. 
   
2. ·      Exercisers who averaged at least two visits to the gym each week added an additional  $1,252 healthcare cost savings in year 2 than did those who visited less than once per week on average. The savings were even higher for those who visited more than twice a week.
   
3. ·      Exercise participants had significantly less inpatient admissions than non-exercisers.
   
4. ·      Exercise participants had more preventative care visits, adding to the preventative benefit of exercising.
   

So what does all that mean?  Older adults typically consume more health care than younger counterparts, so the study of the impact of exercise on healthcare utilization is significant, particularly if you are an older adult.  If your employer or insurance company offers either reimbursement or payment for gym membership – take advantage of this benefit.  Examples of this kind of program include either Silver Sneakers (whose members participated in the study mentioned above) or the Silver and Fit programs.  Exercise is Medicine!  In this case, exercise is medicine that prevents the need for additional medicine, and in many cases, costs you nothing but time and sweat.   

Read the entire study here:  (article link)