Inactivity is a threat to good health

McNally’s article about the crisis in social care was reassuring to read.1 We hear endless lamentations about this crisis caused by a lack of care home places, too few available carers, the consequent unnecessary detention of older people in hospital, the unbelievable time spent in emergency departments, and the hugely depressing sight of rows of ambulances queuing outside hospitals. The solutions offered are usually a mixture of reorganisation and more money being thrown at the social care system. The possibility of prevention is hardly ever mentioned.Most people who need social care are frail and older—but frailty, as McNally says, is not inevitable. Frailty is caused by loss of muscle strength and low cardiorespiratory fitness, both of which are associated with lack of exercise over a very long period. General physical unfitness is a powerful risk factor for most of the degenerative diseases of later life, and these further reduce physical…
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