Exercise :: Exercise to avoid medical bills

With more than 60 per cent of adults worldwide abstaining from sufficient physical activity, a top UN sports officials has sought a reversal of the trend, saying it saves huge amounts spent on medical bills.

Exercise is physical activity that is undertaken in order to improve one’s health. Physicians, physical therapists, and researchers have found that exercise plays an important role in the maintenance of brain, nerve, and muscle function in the human body. New research suggests that exercise may delay mental deterioration with age and disease, and perhaps even promote neurogenesis (nerve cell growth).

Stating that lack of physical activity results in two million premature deaths every year, Director of the UN New York Office of Sports for Development and Peace (UNOSDP) Djibril Diallo stressed the need for promoting sports for health.

In this context, he noted that a studies in the United States have shown that each dollar spent on exercise can save more than 3 dollars in medical bills.

“From international events to grassroots, sport brings people together in a way that can cross boundaries and break down barriers, making the playing field a simple and apolitical site,” he added.

UNOSDP, he said, has selected the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia and Ctte d’Ivoire as pilot countries for initiatives where sport could be utilized to help promote peace and development.

In the DRC, UNOSDP head and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace Adolf Ogi partnered with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to organize a sports activity held shortly before the country’s landmark elections last year.

Through the assistance of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Liberian authorities and the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) received a container-load of sporting goods and equipment valued at over 76,000 dollars for the organisation of the five-week long programme in football, kickball and volleyball to be held throughout Liberia’s 15 counties.


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