Do you want to improve your health? Do you want to lose weight, get physically fit, or help counteract the effects of various health conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes? What if we told you that there was an easy treatment already available to you that could help reduce your health risks and improve quality of life at almost any age, with almost any health condition?

Dr. Mike Evans, a specialist in preventive medicine, made an amazing YouTube video discussing what is the #1 thing you can do to improve your health (the video is below).
He discussed an amazing, simple treatment that has been proven to have the following beneficial effects on people’s health:

• 23% reduction in overall risk of death (during a 12-year study of 10,000 Harvard alumni)
• 50% lower risk of progression to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
• 47% less pain and disability for people suffering from knee arthritis
• 58% lower rate of progression to diabetes (in people at risk for diabetes)
• 41% lower risk of hip fractures for post-menopausal women
• 48% reduction in anxiety
• 47% reduction in depression

Can you guess what the treatment is?

It’s exercise. Mostly walking.

According to Dr. Mike Evans, the best thing you can do for your health is to walk for half an hour each day. That’s it! You don’t have to become a world-class athlete, you don’t have to train for a marathon or triathlon. You just have to get up off the couch and go for a walk outside every day.

• Sitting can be deadly: According to a recent study (similar to one mentioned in the YouTube video by Dr. Evans), people who are highly sedentary – who sit for several hours each day – are at a higher risk of death. Even if you’re overweight or obese, you’re better off getting at least a little exercise. The average adult in the U.S. spends 5 hours a day watching TV or screens (laptop computer, iPad, video games, etc.).

• Get a dog: “A dog is a great walking coach,” said Dr. Evans. Simply taking your dog for a walk around the neighborhood can get you the exercise you need to improve your health. Maybe this will give new meaning to the old phrase, “Man’s best friend.”

• 30 minutes is all you need: According to Dr. Evans, the return on investment of time spent exercising tends to diminish after 30 minutes per day – this means that if you walk for an hour a day, the health benefits are not much better than what you would get from 30 minutes. It’s really amazing how just 30 minutes per day seems to be the “magic number” to improve people’s health. So if you can sacrifice 15 minutes of Angry Birds, and 15 minutes of Facebook, that should be all the time you need for exercise!

The name of the video is “23 ½ hours,” and the reason for that title is that Dr. Evans wants us to change the way we think about our daily routines. Modern life makes it difficult to be physically active – many of us spend many hours sitting at desks at work, sitting in the car during our commutes, and sitting on the couch to relax after a hard day. What Dr. Evans is asking us to do is to “limit your sitting and sleeping time to 23 ½ hours per day.” Save that extra half hour for walking. If you do, you’re likely to have a healthier, happier, longer life.

Check out the fascinating video below: