What Exercise Really Won’t Do for You

The bottom line in NYT’s health writer Gina Kolata’s surprising piece questioning the ballyhooed benefits of exercise is this: "It is impossible to know with confidence whether exercise prevents
heart disease or whether people who are less likely to get heart
disease are also more likely to be exercising." Why would people who are less likely to get heart disease be more likely to exercise? That’s where statistics demonstrate their indifference to political correctness. Because, Kolata tells us, active people "tend to be more educated, and education is one of the strongest predictors of good health in general and a longer life." Same deal, says Kolata, for people who are less likely to get cancer. What exercise is good for–it can lift your mood, lower blood pressure and help you lose weight– and what is is alleged to be good for–just about everything–is a lot less clear than most people, including Gina Kolata, would like it to be, and this piece goes a long in separating the wheat from the chaff. Great word, "chaff." Chaff. Chaff. Chaff.
Read more about what exercise won’t really do for you in the New York Times.