The FITNESS Fit 50: The Best Breakthroughs for Your Health

New Doctor's Orders: Exercise Is Medicine

Exercise is medicine. It's a simple message, as well as the name of the health campaign launched last November by Robert Sallis, MD, then-president of the American College of Sports Medicine, in collaboration with the American Medical Association. The initiative, promoted by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has signed on 2,200 physicians to prescribe a minimum of 150 minutes of exercise a week to sedentary patients. Says Dr. Sallis, "Working out is the single most important thing you can do to live longer."