Could exercise be as effective as medication?

Conclusion The researchers found that there are very few trials that directly compare exercise with drug therapy for any condition. They were only able to find enough trials to be able to analyse results for four major conditions. They found that exercise reduced death rates for people after a stroke (although this analysis has limitations and should be interpreted cautiously), and that drug therapy with diuretics improved death rates for people with heart failure. They did not find any difference between exercise and drug therapy for death rates after a heart attack or in people with pre-diabetes. There were several limitations to this study, which the researchers have pointed out themselves, including: Most of these studies did not directly compare exercise with drug therapy – most people in the identified studies were on the usual drug therapies with additional exercise and/or lifestyle modifications. Exercise trials often included some drug interventions (although the details of drug treatments were limited), suggesting that the observed effect of exercise possibly represented the added benefit of exercise over and above the benefit conferred by drug interventions. The exercise interventions varied across the four conditions, so can’t be generalised. These interventions were not the same as the recommended target of 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity. The exercise in the studies included cardiac rehabilitation after a heart attack, card...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Heart/lungs Medication Source Type: news