What percentage of Americans are not physically active at all?

What do a prominent physiologist and two-time survivor of pancreatic cancer and a world-renowned researcher whose landmark discoveries on aspirin, drug therapies of proven benefit and therapeutic lifestyle changes that have saved more than 1.1 million lives have in common? They are both passionate about the importance of regular physical activity in reducing risks of dying from heart attacks and strokes, as well as developing diabetes, hypertension and colon cancer. And more importantly, enhancing mental health and fostering healthy muscles, bones and joints in all Americans from childhood to the elderly.

Steven Lewis, Ph.D., visiting professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, and Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.P.H., the first Richard Doll Professor and senior academic advisor to the dean in FAU's College of Medicine, have published a commentary online ahead of print in the American Journal of Medicine titled, "Regular Physical Activity: Forgotten Benefits." In the commentary, they stress how lack of physical activity in Americans poses important clinical, public health and fiscal challenges for the nation.

"Lack of physical activity accounts for 22 percent of coronary heart disease, 22 percent of colon cancer, 18 percent of osteoporotic fractures, 12 percent of diabetes and hypertension, and 5 percent of breast cancer," said Hennekens. "Furthermore, physical inactivity accounts for about 2.4 percent of U.S. healthcare expenditures or approximately $24 billion a year."

The statistics of physical inactivity in the U.S. are staggering and quite the eye opener. According to Healthy People 2020, approximately 36 percent of adults do not engage in any leisure-time physical activity, despite the fact that walking may be comparable to more vigorous exercise in preventing a cardiovascular event. Even in patients who have had a heart attack and who undergo cardiac rehabilitation, it's estimated that less than 15 percent actually participate in cardiac rehabilitation following discharge.

Men and women who engage in regular physical activity experience statistically significant and clinically important reductions in the risk of dying from coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S. The authors point out that brisk walking every day for only 20 minutes, which can be practiced even among the oldest adults, confers a 30 to 40 percent reduced risk of a heart attack.

"There's a lot more that we can do to address this national epidemic among people of all ages," said Lewis. "For example, clinicians should screen and refer obese patients to programs that offer intensive counseling for weight control and physical activity. This simple, straightforward and easily achievable objective may be the first necessary step to lower rates of obesity and physical inactivity in the U.S. today."

Patients commonly ask their physicians questions such as, "What exercise should I do?" "How long should I do the exercise, how often and how hard do I need to exercise?" The authors emphasize the need for better defined guidelines for the types, intensities, frequencies and durations of exercise for clinicians to provide to their patients.

"Unfortunately, most Americans prefer prescription of pills to proscription of harmful lifestyles such as physical inactivity," said Hennekens. "In general, any pharmacologic intervention should be an adjunct, not alternative, to therapeutic lifestyle changes such as increasing levels of physical activity. Based on the current totality of evidence, when compared with most pharmacologic therapies, exercise is more readily available at a low cost and relatively free of adverse effect."

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Materials provided by Florida Atlantic University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Less than a quarter of Americans are meeting all national physical activity guidelines, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Federal physical activity guidelines recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week, in addition to muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week. But according to the new NCHS report, which drew on five years of data from the National Health Interview Survey, only about 23% of adults ages 18 to 64 are hitting both of those marks. Another 32% met one but not both, and almost 45% did not hit either benchmark.

Those numbers fluctuated somewhat depending on gender, occupation and home state. More men (roughly 27%) than women (almost 19%) met both guidelines, and both genders saw slightly higher percentages among working adults (almost 29% and 21%, respectively).

The authors also added that people working in managerial or “professional” positions were more likely than individuals in production roles, such as assembly and manufacturing, to meet the standards. However, the report looked only at leisure-time physical activity, so adults who log exercise through active jobs or commutes were not included in the findings.

Some states saw adherence rates well above the national average, while others were well below. Colorado led the pack, with 32.5% of adults meeting both federal exercise guidelines. In Mississippi, just 13.5% of adults reported meeting both exercise guidelines.

With some exceptions, states on the West Coast and in the Northeast tended to have higher percentages of residents meeting the guidelines than states in the South. Residents of states in the Southeast had particularly low rates. High levels of unemployment and disability or poor health in a state were correlated with lower rates of meeting exercise guidelines, the researchers found.

In all, the results suggest that most Americans should try to squeeze more exercise into their time off, given its well-established connections to everything from chronic disease prevention to mental and cognitive health benefits.

Write to Jamie Ducharme at .

What percentage of Americans are physically inactive?

How many Americans are not physically active?