The role of exercise in neuromuscular diseases

Giuseppe D’Antona

Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine and CRIAMS-Sport Medicine Centre Voghera, University of Pavia, Italy

Regular physical activity, appropriately dosed in volume and frequency, has a wide-ranging beneficial function on the physical and mental health of humans. In fact, the scientific literature demonstrates, incontrovertibly, that physical exercise can perform a powerful preventive function on numerous serious and often chronic and deadly diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, hypertension, and cancer (and in particular breast and colon cancer), osteoporosis, neurodegenerative diseases, depression and pathological anxiety. This silent protective action is accompanied by a significant improvement in the quality of life and the level of self-esteem, a slowing down of cellular muscle ageing processes (sarcopenia) and is associated with a reduction in the risk of cognitive decline and development of dementia. The holistic effect of the benefit of physical activity is demonstrated by the fact that it ends up impacting on human longevity by increasing its average survival, or by postponing the onset of potentially deadly diseases.

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