Open Access Increasing Physical Activity of High Intensity to Reduce the Prevalence of Chronic Diseases and Improve Public Health

Abstract: High incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing obesity and inactivity as well as rising health ex-penditure represent a set of developments that cannot be considered sustainable, and will have dire long-term conse-quences given the increasing proportion of elderly people in our society. Based on a review of the experiences from previ-ous large scale population-based prevention programs and the documented effects of increased physical activity and car-diorespiratory fitness on chronic diseases and its risk factors, we argue that increased physical activity, especially vigorous physical activity, is a major way to reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases and improve public health. We conclude that a coordinated population-based intervention program for improved health through increased physical activity in the entire population, with a special focus on high intensity exercise, urgently needs to be implemented nationally and internation-ally