Studies have shown just two days of physical inactivity can have very detrimental effects on your body and health. According to the study performed at the University of Missouri, just two days of not exercising is enough to affect your body's efficient use of insulin, which can lead to diabetes and other related diseases. Researchers conducted a study on rats and found insulin sensitivity decreased the longer the rats stayed inactive.

The rats were allowed to run on a wheel for three weeks. After that time, the rats were stopped. Just two days after the rats stopped running, the amount of sugar taken into their muscles in response to insulin decreased by about one-third. The findings were discussed.

David Kump is a researcher. He said that insulin works by taking glucose, or blood sugar, out of the blood stream and into the muscle to be used for energy. The less efficient your insulin is the greater risk you have of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and hypertension that you may get. Kump also added to his findings that everyone is looking at the benefits of exercise, but we are looking at the consequences of stopping that exercise. People already know that exercise is good for them. But do they know how bad it is for them to stop? This research study shows that, within a very short time frame of inactivity, the insulin does not work as well and might have negative effects on the body.

This study is important to consider for several reasons. First of all, it has been obvious for a long time that exercise is good for you. This is no surprise to anyone. I don't think you really need a research study to tell you that. Sometimes looking at something with a little logic goes a very long way. For example, did we really need research to know that smoking cigarettes was bad for us? Yes of course, big tobacco companies lied to us. But did you really believe inhaling a burning weed for years and years wasn't going to do something bad to your health?

Regardless of what you thought, it's nice to have hardcore proof in reference to this. This is especially important when the results are so dramatic and can be so life changing. What I also am fond of in this study is that it shows the consequences of not exercising. There is no doubt in my mind that exercising makes you healthier and live a better life. I also have no doubt that if you do not exercise; in the long run it will cause diseases such as diabetes and heart disease and will most likely shorten your life.

Many people think that to get rid of back pain, you can just go exercise it away. This just isn't true and is just nonsense. If you have a bulging disc or herniated disc in your spine, exercise can and many times can injure it more. Once you get the disc corrected with spinal decompression, then you can go exercise the area. But this does not work the other way around and may make it worse.

I have had countless patients finally get out of pain, start an exercise program and feel years younger. Some lose 10, 20, even 30 pounds because they can finally exercise without pain or further injuring themselves. And with this new study, it's obvious these patients are not only looking and feeling better - they are healthier and adding countless years to their lives. It's also obvious, if you are not exercising regularly, those years are being stolen from you as you are reading this.