Move it! Regular exercise can improve the function of the immune system and may help lower the risk of cancer.

Today you meet them at the beaches, in the parks, along the highways-and of course, on indoor custom-built quarter-mile tracks. I found them in all my tourist slides of Washington, D.C., and I met them along the frozen Dvina River of Arkhangelsk, Russia. Yet from the ranks of the uncommitted spectators comments may be heard: "So what?" "Joggomaniacs!" "Running for an early grave!" "You'd never sprain your ankle in bed!" Modem health hazards. Physiology and medicine are on the side of the exercisers. In addition to smoking, alcohol, faulty nutrition, and stress, physical inactivity is clearly a causal factor for dangerous and debilitating conditions such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, noninsulin-dependent diabetes, osteoporosis, and obesity. This is the conclusion of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, as presented in a recent publication, Guide to Clinical and Preventive Services.

In the Western world, lifestyle diseases are the main causes of death, not the infectious communicable diseases that killed so many 50 to 100 years ago.

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in all of the Western world. It is the biggest epidemic ever seen in our hemisphere, according to the World Health Organization.

High blood pressure occurs in at least 61 million Americans. It is a major risk factor for heart disease as well as kidney disease, diseases of the eye, and stroke.

Diabetes increases the risk for heart disease as well as various other ailments. Most of the nearly 6 million Americans suffer from noninsulin-dependent diabetes, which is caused primarily by obesity and a poor diet.

Osteoporosis, a weakening of the bone structure resulting from calcium depletion, is seen mainly among the elderly. About one quarter of all United States women over age 60 carry symptoms of the disease. More than 1 million fractures resulting from osteoporosis are seen in the U.S. every year. Following a fracture, the risk of early death increases.

Americans are among the fattest people in the world, followed closely by the rest of the Western world. Overweight people have an elevated risk for most of the diseases mentioned.

The concern of the task force, therefore, is that health-care professionals place greater emphasis on suitable treatment of lifestyle diseases. This modern disease riddle will not be solved through vaccinations, medication, and surgery. The solution lies in lifestyle changes in such key areas as the elimination of tobacco and alcohol, better nutrition, increased physical activity, and positive attitudes. Healthy exercisers. Exercisers have a marked decrease in overall mortality compared to sedentary people. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded: "Exercise appears to be especially effective in improving health status in six disease-specific areas: coronary artery disease (heart disease), hypertension, obesity, noninsulin-dependent diabetes, osteoporosis, and diminished psychological well-being."

A good exercise program reduces the risk of heart disease by lowering levels of serum cholesterol and fats. Physically active people have only half the risk of heart disease compared to the physically inactive. Interestingly, this advantage with exercise has been shown in the elderly as well.

Furthermore, exercisers show a marked decrease in high blood pressure as well as more normalized levels of blood sugar. Exercise may well reduce the risk of developing hypertension and noninsulin-dependent diabetes. In fact, current medical treatment of these conditions includes physical exercise before medications are administered.

Recently the focus on how to prevent postmenopausal osteoporosis has shifted somewhat from a great concern with calcium intake to a still-greater emphasis on weight-bearing exercises such as walking and jogging. The issue still needs a lot of research, yet it is evident from studies that the risk of hip fractures is lowered in those who exercise.

Physical exercise can help prevent obesity. In fact, yesterday's focus on calorie counting has been exchanged by more emphasis on exercise, says Dr. Stephen Blair of the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas. "Obesity is more a case of being under exercised than overfed."

If you're a regular exerciser, you may have noticed a commonly mentioned benefit of exercise-improved psychological well-being (positive mood, reduced depression, and lowered anxiety). The relationship between exercise and mental/emotional health is still poorly understood. Yet it is a fact that many treatment centers use exercise in the treatment of emotional and mental disorders. With exercise comes an improved level of self-esteem, in response to an improved personal appearance and self-image.

It should be added that regular exercise can improve the function of the immune system and may help lower the risk of cancer.

A pill with the same health-promoting potential as a good exercise program would become a best-seller, whatever the price. Yet so far, this "pill" is free! Exercise promotes wellness. When starting an exercise program you sense how the heart, lungs, and muscles get to work out their hidden potential. To the truly sedentary this may be a new and different experience-fascinating to some and frightening to others.

As you continue your program of walking, swimming, or jogging, gradually these more long-lasting effects will become evident: (1) your muscles become stronger, bigger, firmer, and work more effectively; (2) your resting pulse drops and endurance improves as heart and lung function increase; and (3) you sense a state of wellness as your daily living becomes easier and more satisfying.

The brain also benefits-with improved stress coping, an increased pain threshold, and clearer thoughts. How? Any physical activity is exercise per se. But activities that involve large muscle masses and can be kept up rhythmically for at least 20 minutes are preferred. In many ways cross-country skiing is the best-whether you use regular skis on snow or roller skis on a hard road surface. But related forms of activity are also excellent, such as jogging, brisk walking, swimming, bicycling, and skipping rope.

The standard exercise prescription with 20-minute bouts three times per week is optimal for heart training. Yet it has also been shown that many of the health benefits may be obtained even at lower intensity levels. For instance, inactive and elderly people who have hypertension and diabetes and are overweight may see an improvement in health through a rather modest exercise program such as walking.

The first sessions -whether they be walking, jogging, swimming, skiing, or cycling -may go against the grain. You may have started in because you needed to, wanted to, were encouraged to, or even were inspired to. Yet your feet may feel like lead, your breathing may be labored, and you may ask yourself, "Why do I do it?"

My advice is to keep going-from willpower, from inspiration found in scenic surroundings, from a role model you may appreciate, or from knowing that change will come. Soon enjoyment from feeling that you can do it will grow to a sensation of freedom, inner inspiration, and balance: you will have found another you." It's like living in overdrive. You exercise because you love it. Exercise becomes life itself; everything else is just waiting. God made you with this in mind. Fl Excuses, Excuses Seven excuses commonly used to avoid exercise: 1 . I have no time and place. 2. I have no suitable exercise companion. 3. I am too old, too young, or too fat. 4. I am too much out of shape; what if someone

sees me? 5. Exercise is too boring. 6. Exercise is too hard and unesthetic. 7. It is too cold, too hot, too windy (the weather

factor).

And the list goes on.

There are marvelous positive answers to every excuse listed here. The poorer the starting condition, the greater the gain. One is never too old. Exercise can be done anywhere, at any time, with anyone, or even alone. However, the solution lies rarely in convincing arguments, but in choice or attitudes.