THAT'S MEN:Exercise is the most beneficial thing people can do for their health as they get older
MEN HAVE a lower life expectancy than women because we don't take care of ourselves as well as women do. So wouldn't it be great if someone invented a pill that had no harmful side effects and that helped us to live longer?
It would also be helpful if the pill could delay the onset of disability by, oh, say a couple of decades.
Preferably, you would only have to take this pill four or five times a week.
And since there would be a massive demand for it, we would need the cost to be subsidised by the State.
I am, you will not be surprised to learn, talking about exercise and not about a pill at all. Don't switch channels before you consider the following:
An American study has found that people who jog can halve their chances of dying prematurely from diseases such as cancer.
That's an extraordinary result. But don't they wreck themselves with all that jogging?
No. The study found that the onset of disability in joggers commenced 16 years later than in people who did not exercise.
This was no flash in the pan study. It examined the health of 500 runners and 500 non-runners over 20 years. The runners were in their 50s at the start of the study.
Fifteen per cent of runners had died after 20 years. But more than twice as many, 34 per cent, of non-runners had died.
And these people were not out running at six o'clock every morning. At the start of the study they were averaging about four hours a week - not much more than half an hour a day.
By the end of the study, more than two decades later, they were averaging 76 minutes a week, just over 10 minutes a day. Yet their health continued to benefit.
Runners were less susceptible to deaths from a whole range of conditions - diseases of the heart and arteries, cancer, infection and so on.
And, no, they didn't need to have more knee replacements or suffer more arthritis than anybody else.
The conclusion of the researchers from Stanford University Medical Centre was that taking aerobic exercise is the most beneficial thing people can do for their health as they get older.
Aerobic exercise makes your heart beat faster and goes on for at least 20 minutes. So working a remote control or a computer mouse won't do the trick.
Brisk walking, swimming, jogging and cycling all provide aerobic exercise. All are cheap or free.
I have written before here about the mental health benefits of exercise. The Mind organisation in Britain found that a walk in a park or country area improved mental as well as physical health.
How many people, I wonder, are going to the doctor looking for anti-depressants or for something to relax them when a bit of exercise in the local park might work as well?
The thing about exercise is that there is more to it than exercising. Getting, say, half an hour's aerobic exercise five or six days a week involves putting the time aside for yourself. You have to get off the rollercoaster for long enough to walk or jog or swim or cycle.
So you have to reorganise your life somewhat. You have to take control of your time and actions in a way that says your physical and emotional health matters to you.
I think that is why Mind found in its research that people who went out and walked in the country or in a park reported a heightened sense of self-esteem. By getting themselves out there they demonstrated that they considered themselves worth the effort.
And exercise is very much worth the effort. For instance, we tend to feel a greater sense of emotional wellbeing when our energy is high than when it is low. Think of that slump in energy that happens for most of us around 2.30 in the afternoon when simple tasks can feel like they are just too much for us.
That's an indication of the importance of energy to the emotions.
So if you do aerobic exercise, you boost your longevity, your health and your emotional wellbeing. What are you waiting for?
• Padraig O'Morain is a counsellor. His bookThat's Men - the best of the That's Men column from The Irish Times is published by Veritas