News: Is exercise as effective as drugs for heart disease and diabetes?

If you usually reach for a pill bottle, it may be time to lace up your running shoes instead.

A new study, published in the British Medical Journal, suggests that exercise and drugs often have similar results when used to treat heart disease, prevent diabetes and for stroke rehabilitation.

The researchers even found that in some cases, exercise was more effective.

"No statistically detectable differences were evident between exercise and drug interventions in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and prediabetes," the study’s authors wrote. "Physical activity interventions were more effective than drug treatment among patients with stroke."

While this study isn’t license to forgo pills that have been prescribed to you, it’s definitely worth adding more exercise to your daily routine – and even talking to your doctor about whether you could replace your pills with fitness.

After all, the benefits of exercise are plentiful. Just going for a long walk every day lowers your blood pressure, can help you lose weight, could reduce your risk for breast cancer and more.

Do you exercise every day? Have you used exercise to help manage diabetes or heart disease?

-Katharine Watts, associate web editor

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‘ 14 new ways to lose weight walking
‘ 8 ways to prevent diabetes
‘ 15 ways to beat heart disease