ABSTRACT
Introduction One of the potential roles that exercise biologists have in the early part of this century is to use the increased understanding of the scientific bases of health to improve the health of the world’s population. Exercise is only one of the factors that affect health, and the sciences of physiology and psychology have a particularly important role to play, with different slants applied depending on where in the world we live. In the industrialized world, we can continue to be dependent on expensive medical
and pharmacological interventions to treat the consequences of what might be considered modern day excesses. Alternatively, we might make a serious effort to reduce our dependency on expensive intervention by looking to promote and achieve the goal of a healthier lifestyle – taking more responsibility for our own health (primary prevention), at the same time as being aided by primary care, and being less reliant on acute/secondary care. Key contributors to ill-health include physical inactivity, poor diet, tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption and drug abuse, however, the effects of some of these patterns of behaviour can be reversed.
