BMJ Opinion: Scarlett McNally: Exercise is the miracle cure

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/01/30/scarlett-mcnally-exercise-is-the-miracle-cure/

 

Apparently, as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, she is unable to find any exceptions to the rule. Perhaps surgery has become so specialised that a surgeon only offers the one treatment.

 

I am desperate to exercise. I envy my aromatherapist who goes to the gym every day despite being 66.

If the BPS crew had not hijacked ME research and understanding in 1985 I might be active too. And they have the brass nerve to then blame me for being sedentary when their medical neglect let me deteriorate to a wheelchair 30 years ago and now having to lie down most of the time

 

Which comes first people who exercise are healthier, or people who are healthy exercise more?

 

Both are true.

 

A good rule of thumb when someone promotes a miracle cure is to ignore the person completely because there is no such thing as a miracle cure.

Looking back at times when most people used to do vigorous exercise as part of their everyday job, health outcomes were definitely not very good. Nothing is ever so simple.

 

I used to have that voice until I 'reversed' my deconditioning while my other symptoms (brainfog, headache etc) all got worse.

 

This woman is deranged. I don't know what else to say. She certainly is no friend to us.

 

Moving from no activity to just a little activity—walking briskly every day to the shop, rather than driving, for example—has been shown to yield the single greatest gain in health and wellbeing

Walking two hours per week seems to be enough.

120 min per week is that not 17 min a day?

Do mild effected not walk 17 min per day?

 

disability prevents you from doing enough actual exercise to be of benefit .in most cases people become disabled after previously being fit and well . many professions today though have sedentary jobs so getting professionals with those kind of jobs to do more physical activities could be of benefit to their long term health but and there is always a but many people actually become disabled by their fitness regimes how many here know people who have needed hip replacement after decades of jogging operations on tendons etc . you can not treat every human being the same this is the worst assumption of so called modern medicine . I am worn out just typing this so does this count as exercise.

 

Lately there were news stories about dying earlier doing intensive fitness regimes.

 

Read carefully, note the word "briskly". Simply walking a bit more each day does basically nothing for your health or fitness.

 

Really? For most people it is true though? ME is just an exception.

 

That is what they say but in this country there were newsstories normal walking is good enough.

 

She is a professional person tendering advice. She should be aware of the possibility of exceptions and frame the advice accordingly.

 

While moderately affected by ME - by evening I had to be helped upstairs, had episodes of paralysis, inability to speak and blindness - I walked briskly for at least 50 minutes everyday taking kids to school and nursery, shopping, going to the park, as well as housework and gardening. I was never sedentary, and much fitter than most office workers.

 

Experts should be held accountable for their publicly given advice. They'd be far less free with it.

I have two close relatives who had hip replacements over a decade apart. Patient 1 an early 40s non smoker and patient 2 a mid 30s smoker. Patient 1 had quite a few days rest whereas Patient 2 was up and out of bed and moving around asap. The difference in recovery between the two was remarkable. So I can see how an orthopaedic surgeon would have this idea about exercise being a panacea.

However they should apply caveats loud and clear. Exercise needs to be appropriate to the individual. For example Patient 2 was warned not to cycle or do the breast stroke when swimming. That was a couple of decades ago and the advice may have changed since. See, a caveat.

 

Hey, hold on there, I have it on good authority that 100% of people who breath oxygen and drink water eventually die. 100% mortality!