Not Exercising Worse for Health Than Smoking, Study Finds

The study found that leading a sedentary lifestyle is just as bad as having a major disease.

exercise health
A new study found that not exercising is just as unhealthy as smoking. (Getty Images)
Getty Images

A new study claims that a lack of exercise may be more detrimental to your overall health than smoking cigarettes.

The findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open on Friday, detailed the results of a 13-year-long research project that followed the health statistics and practices of over 122,000 people. It found a direct connection between exercise and longevity — as well as the reverse.

“Being unfit on a treadmill or in an exercise stress test has a worse prognosis, as far as death, than being hypertensive, being diabetic or being a current smoker,” the study’s co-author, Wael Jaber, told CNN. “We’ve never seen something as pronounced as this and as objective as this.”

The cure to an unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle, according to the study, is exercise.

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