Sir Muir Gray
Dr Muir Gray CBE is a well-known expert in all aspects of public health.
He received a knighthood in 2005 or services to the NHS.
In my fifty years in the NHS I have seen many wonderful treatments and technologies come into practice: chemotherapy, hip replacement and transplantation to give three examples, but research has also revealed the vital physical and mental benefits of exercise. The Chief Medical Officers of the United Kingdom have consistently recommended thirty minutes of exercise of moderate intensity, such as brisk walking daily, as a means of preventing, delaying, or even reversing the modern epidemics such as stroke, heart disease, dementia, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Also during this time we have had the Report from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, representing all branches of medicine, with the astonishing title Exercise, the Miracle Cure about the effectiveness of exercise for all the common longterm conditions in addition to, and sometimes instead of, drug therapy. Increasing the amount you walk is the simplest way to take the Miracle Cure, needing no special equipment apart from a raincoat now and again. The evidence about the preventive benefits of exercise is now both overwhelming and accepted, but too many people identified at being at risk of disease are only getting a prescription for pills, not for walking. The position is even worse for people who already have one, or more than one, long-term condition; only a minority of them are prescribed anything other than pills. Pills are very important and often necessary, but they are not sufficient. A drug prescription for people with a long-term health problem should, and will, alwaybe accompanied by an exercise prescription, and the easiest way to take it is to walk more.
This book is part of The Let's Walk More campaign to inform and encourage people to walk more, and for the NHS to prescribe walking both for prevention and for treatment. It is of vital importance in helping you not only to live longer, but also to live better for longer, both mentally and physically. In the twelve years since my heart attack I have had more than 400 boxes of pills from the NHS but not one word about diet or exercise. Our campaign will change this.
