Building the relationship with fitness and health has become a national movement directed towards our youth. The President’s Council on Physical Fitness recommends 30 minutes of physical activity each day.

In its effort to encourage an active and healthy youth, and reverse the trend of childhood obesity, the NFL promotes their NFL Play 60 campaign. They encourage kids to stay active for 60 minutes a day.

The First Lady, Michelle Obama, recently lead a group of children in one minute of jumping jacks. This was an attempt to set a Guinness World Record. More than 20,000 people around the world would need to do jumping jacks for one minute in order to set the record.

Physical activity is an important element in our daily lives, right? We feel better after we exercise and know the valuable role it plays on our health. The cardiovascular benefits have been well documented.

A recent study reported on in Science Daily, concluded that higher levels of physical exercise have a long-term beneficial impact on low ocular perfusion pressure (OPP), an important risk factor for glaucoma. Exercise is good for our eyes!

The study, published in the journal “Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science,” examined 5,650 men and women aged 48 to 90 who live in the UK. Over the period of 2006 to 2010, participants were assessed for combined physical activity at work and leisure using a detailed self-administered health and lifestyle questionnaire.

“It appears that OPP is largely determined by cardiovascular fitness,” said author Paul J. Foster, MD PhD, FRCS(Ed), of the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology. “We cannot comment on the cause, but there is certainly an association between a sedentary lifestyle and factors which increase glaucoma risk.”

No matter what your age, young or old, the benefits of daily exercise are phenomenal.