Exercise is medicine

The increase in the population of the elderly and the prevalence of chronic diseases has resulted in a growing number of people living with disabilities (Cieza et al., 2021). In such cases, mortality and morbidity cannot adequately describe the clinical outcomes of most health conditions. Hence, in 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed functioning as the third clinical outcome indicator (Stucki and Bickenbach, 2017). Exercise is an important modality for improving functioning and health conditions. The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Medical Association have suggested that “exercise is medicine®” (Lobelo et al., 2014), and this marks a new direction in healthcare. Exercise plays an important role in the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of diseases, and is the basis of active and universal health. However, the initiative that “exercise is medicine” has been disputed. This article discusses this statement from the perspective of the proposal of “exercise is medicine” initiative, consequences of exercise in health, and considerations of exercise.