Table 1.

Health-promoting effects of physical activity/regular exercise.

Health indicator	Health-promoting effects of physical activity/regular exercise	Reference
Mortality and longevity	All-cause mortality is reduced above all by providing cover against atherosclerosis as well as insulin resistance.	Pedersen, 2006
	According to one study with more than 55,000 participants being monitored for a 15-year-period, runners displayed a 30% reduced risk of all-cause mortality and a 45% decreased risk of cardiovascular mortality as compared to non-runners, with a gain in life expectancy of three years. Already slow running for five up to 10 min/day may considerably lower one’s mortality risk.	Lee et al., 2014
Aging	Physical activity protected against the consequences of aging for example by working against the loss of muscle mass together with neuromuscular function.	Cvecka et al., 2015
Cardiovascular disease and hypertension	Cardiovascular disease is marked by chronic systemic inflammation which in turn is counteracted by the anti-inflammatory properties evolved by regular exercise: an increase in anti-inflammatory cytokines and a decrease in the production of TNF-α, thereby protecting against cardiovascular disease and mortality.	Petersen and Pedersen, 2006; Lavie et al., 2015
	Regular aerobic exercise brought about a reduction of blood pressure of 11/5 mm Hg on average.	Börjesson et al., 2016; Heijnen et al., 2016
Diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity, adiposity, and metabolic syndrome	Physical activity reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes. The recommended amount of aerobic exercise as treatment option for type 2 diabetes comprises at least 150 min three times a week in combination with resistance training to build up muscle strength performed at least twice a week.	Mendes et al., 2015
	Metabolic syndrome features abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and a disorder of glucose metabolism and pre-diabetes is known as one cause of metabolic syndrome. Within a period of three years the progress from pre-diabetes to diabetes can be lowered by about 58% as a result of lifestyle modifications such as exercise training for losing weight. Recommendations include at least 30 min of moderate training, if possible, every day in combination with additional accommodations of the diet.	Gaesser, 2007; Mayans, 2015
	Obesity is characterized by chronic low-grade inflammation induced by metabolic substances like FFAs whose levels are often heightened in the obese. By binding to pattern recognition receptors including TLRs and FFARs FFAs activate inflammatory signaling pathways responsible for mediating inflammation as well as insulin resistance in both cells displaying metabolic activity and immune cells. By means of exploitation of FFAs, down-regulation of TLR expression and diminishing inflammatory signaling exercise is accordingly capable of restricting chronic low-grade inflammation as well as insulin resistance.	Ringseis et al., 2015
	Exercise leads to an increase in energy consumption and a decrease of (visceral) body fat, but not necessarily to weight loss.	Sallam and Laher, 2016
Osteoporosis	Exercise training can be implemented to prevent and with restrictions even to treat osteoporosis and should comprise various elements, such as resistance training, weight lifting, also balance training, and optionally aerobic units like walking, running, swimming as well as water aerobics. It is recommended to carry out the exercises at least twice and up to four times a week, paying attention to one’s safety.	Moreira et al., 2014; Giangregorio et al., 2015
Cognitive performance	Aerobic exercise, especially running, results in an enhanced release of anandamide, an endocannabinoid, which is responsible for the rise of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels and the maintenance of heightened BDNF levels after exercise. BDNF-mediated effects on cognitive performance are achieved through stimulation of neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity as well as through improvements concerning learning and memory resulting in a reduced risk of cognitive impairment	Leckie et al., 2014; Heijnen et al., 2016
Mitochondria	Through generation of mitochondria and simultaneous mitophagy to remove damaged mitochondria, the overall function of mitochondria is improved.	Romanello and Sandri, 2016
Neuroplasticity and Neurogenesis	Physical activity promotes neuroplasticity and exercise-mediated neuroplasticity is beneficial in rehabilitation to regain lost motor function after stroke.	Pin-Barre and Laurin, 2015
	Sport enhances neurogenesis. The constant aerobic exercise, for example by using a running wheel, extended adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) in rats, particularly in those that were genetically predisposed to respond to physical training.	Nokia et al., 2016
Cancer	Exercise prevents cancer. In particular the incidence of breast, colorectal, prostate and ovarian cancers is reduced by up to 40% combined with 50 to 60% more cancer survivors, the latter qualifying regular exercise as an important adjuvant therapy. Due to its immunomodulatory properties exercising might be an appropriate strategy to prevent carcinogenesis and neoplastic progression.	Newton and Galvão, 2008; Koelwyn et al., 2015; Champ et al., 2016; Saran et al., 2016
Microbiome	Sports favors diversity of gut bacteria that is conducive to intestinal microbiome as well as the increment of health enhancing bacterial strains.	Cerdá et al., 2016; Cook et al., 2016
Kidney	Regular exercise ameliorates quality of life of patients with chronic kidney disease and aerobic exercise strengthens physical fitness as well as the quality of living in dialysis patients, which is why the authors proposed to include exercise programs into the current treatment concepts of dialysis centers.	Barcellos et al., 2015
Stress, anxiety disorder, depression	Cortisol released in the course of aerobic exercise is subsequently transformed into the inactive cortisone as opposed to cortisol secreted in the wake of chronic psychological stress. Due to this mechanism endurance-trained athletes are better protected against the ramifications of sustained elevated cortisol levels including raised blood pressure, hyperglycemia, and depression. Therefore, sports are thought to reduce the risk of stress-related illnesses like anxiety disorder/depression.	Cerdá et al., 2016; Heijnen et al., 2016