Conway McLean, DPM, Journal columnist

Americans are barraged with images of skinny models and muscle bound men, from the glamour magazines to TV commercials, we are held to an impossible standard. This is a message oft repeated: to be physically attractive and healthy, an individual must eat healthy foods and engage in 2 and a half hours a week of moderate exercise. This has become the mantra of fitness fanatics and healthcare providers alike.

This author has covered extensively the topic of what is a healthy diet; this is not the intent of this article. Instead, let’s turn our gaze to the issue of what are sufficient exercise levels. How much activity do you need to be healthy? Another important question concerns what kind of exercise will provide these benefits. Several recent studies have examined this, revealing good news for those struggling to achieve the recommended activity levels.

At this point, there can be no question regarding the extensive benefits of improved fitness, both physical and mental. Running is perhaps the favorite form of exercise for millions, but there are many others. Exercise should function to raise and maintain increased heart rate; it’s a muscle and needs to be worked to be strong. The same can be said of the small muscles lining our arteries. But this only touches on the multiple systems in the body aided by exercise. We learn of new benefits almost daily, from endocrine (hormonal) to cognitive, vascular to neurologic.

Many Americans assume you have to exercise for prolonged periods to reap the rewards of physical activity. The published guidelines from 2018 recommended engaging in roughly 2 1/2 to 4 hours of moderate activity per week. If it is vigorous activity, only an hour and 15 minutes to 2 1/2 hours are required for improved health and longevity. But there is good news on the subject of exercise and health. Although recommendations change, there’s now strong evidence that very short runs, even at a leisurely pace, carry significant health benefits, particularly when it comes to longevity and mental well-being.

Apparently, jogging a mile or two a few times a week can help you live longer and reduce your risk of disease. This style of physical fitness has been referred to as leisure-time running and gets you pretty much the full benefits of running in terms of lowering risks of mortality. A large 15-year study found that running just five to 10 minutes per day at a slow pace (under six miles per hour) was associated with a clear reduction of risks for all causes of death, as well as extending lifespan by several years.

The physiological benefits of running may be attributable to a group of molecules known as exerkines. These are signaling molecules, meaning they send a message to some system, causing some change. The name is appropriate since they’re released from several organ systems as a result of exercise.

While the research on exerkines is quite new,  studies have linked them to reductions in inflammation, the production of new blood vessels, and improved mitochondrial function (the structure in a cell that makes energy for the cell). It turns out even brief periods of exercise, such as a short run, are enough to trigger an increase in the release of various exerkines, and so experience some of the exerkine-related benefits.

You don’t have to be a runner to experience this. Any sufficient increase in activity levels will raise heart rate and help to stimulate levels. Although weight and resistance training isn’t thought of as being an aerobic exercise, if the periods of rest between movements is kept brief, heart rate will be kept high. It is believed this leads to exerkine production, along with the many benefits of more endorphins in the bloodstream.

Too many of us think of exercise only in terms of body weight. The benefits of exercise go far beyond weight maintenance. Improved circulation to every body part, enhanced metabolism, reduced susceptibility to disease, these and more go a long way towards making exercise the ultimate health prescription. One can argue as to the optimal fitness practice, which form of exercise causes the least injury while providing the most bang for the buck, but you can’t about its benefits.

Excuses are plentiful and always available. Exercise takes activity, whether performing arm curls with dumbbells or running ultramarathons (although in isometrics there is no actual motion!). And now we hear the stunning news that it takes even less exercise than we thought, levels that nearly every American can achieve.

The excuses carry less weight now. Turns out even mild-to-moderate levels, and for not that long, can go a long way toward making you healthier, with a better body weight, and a reduced tendency for diabetes. The insurers want you healthier, so they have to spend less money for your care. But your family and friends want you around longer, so get started exercising. It turns out it doesn’t take that much.

EDITORS NOTE: Dr. Conway McLean is a podiatric physician now practicing foot and ankle medicine in the Upper Peninsula, having assumed the practice of Dr. Ken Tabor. McLean has lectured internationally on surgery and wound care, and is board certified in both, with a sub-specialty in foot orthotic therapy. Dr. McLean welcomes questions, comments and suggestions at drcmclean@penmed.com.