'This book is pretty life-changing - encouraging, optimistic, rich
with information. It got me off the sofa.' Jeremy Vine 'This is
such a lovely, ambitious, fascinating book. Essential lockdown
reading. It allows us to reimagine our world and our bodies: we can
move more.' Dr Xand van Tulleken, TV presenter What is the 'miracle
pill', the simple lifestyle change with such enormous health
benefits that, if it was turned into a drug, would be the most
valuable drug in the world? The answer is movement and the good
news is that it's free, easy and available to everyone. Four in ten
British adults, and 80% of children, are so sedentary they don't
meet even the minimum recommended levels for movement. What's going
on? The answer is simple: activity became exercise. What for
centuries was universal and everyday has become the fetishised
pursuit of a minority, whether the superhuman feats of elite
athletes, or a chore slotted into busy schedules. Yes, most people
know physical activity is good for us. And yet 1.5 billion people
around the world are so inactive they are at greater risk of
everything from heart disease to diabetes, cancer, arthritis and
depression, even dementia. Sedentary living now kills more people
than obesity, despite receiving much less attention, and is causing
a pandemic of chronic ill health many experts predict could soon
bankrupt the NHS. How did we get here? Daily, constant exertion was
an integral part of humanity for millennia, but in just a few
decades movement was virtually designed out of people's lives
through transformed workplaces, the dominance of the car, and a
built environment which encourages people to be static. In a world
now also infiltrated by ubiquitous screens, app-summoned taxis and
shopping delivered to your door, it can be shocking to realise
exactly how sedentary many of us are. A recent study found almost
half of middle-aged English people don't walk continuously for ten
minutes or more in an average month. At current trends, scientists
forecast, the average US adult will expend little more energy in an
average week than someone who spent all their time in bed. This
book is a chronicle of this very modern and largely unexplored
catastrophe, and the story of the people trying to turn it around.
Through interviews with experts in various fields - doctors,
scientists, architects and politicians - Peter Walker explores how
to bring more movement into the modern world and, most importantly,
into your life. Forget the gym, introducing quick and easy
lifestyle changes can slow down the ageing process and even reverse
many illnesses and increase mental wellbeing.
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