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Review
. 2012 Sep;167(1):1-12.
doi: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.2012.01970.x.

Exercise acts as a drug; the pharmacological benefits of exercise

J Vina  1 , F Sanchis-Gomar, V Martinez-Bello, M C Gomez-Cabrera
Affiliations
Review

Exercise acts as a drug; the pharmacological benefits of exercise

J Vina et al. Br J Pharmacol. 2012 Sep.

Abstract

The beneficial effects of regular exercise for the promotion of health and cure of diseases have been clearly shown. In this review, we would like to postulate the idea that exercise can be considered as a drug. Exercise causes a myriad of beneficial effects for health, including the promotion of health and lifespan, and these are reviewed in the first section of this paper. Then we deal with the dosing of exercise. As with many drugs, dosing is extremely important to get the beneficial effects of exercise. To this end, the organism adapts to exercise. We review the molecular signalling pathways involved in these adaptations because understanding them is of great importance to be able to prescribe exercise in an appropriate manner. Special attention must be paid to the psychological effects of exercise. These are so powerful that we would like to propose that exercise may be considered as a psychoactive drug. In moderate doses, it causes very pronounced relaxing effects on the majority of the population, but some persons may even become addicted to exercise. Finally, there may be some contraindications to exercise that arise when people are severely ill, and these are described in the final section of the review. Our general conclusion is that exercise is so effective that it should be considered as a drug, but that more attention should be paid to the dosing and to individual variations between patients.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of survival related to age in Tour de France (TdF) participants and in the general population. Persons born between 1892 and 1942 have been studied. Average life span of Tour de France participants is higher (P= 0.004; 17.5%) than the general population of the same country in which the cyclists were born. The age at which 50% of the general population died was 73.5 years, compared with 81.5 years in Tour de France participants (i.e. 11% increase).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Health benefits of exercise in tissues and organs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A summary of the signalling pathways regulated by exercise in skeletal muscle.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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