Bethell is a medical practitioner with extensive experience in clinical applications of exercise, particularly for patients with heart disease. Bethell set up a cardiac rehabilitation (CR) unit in Alton Sports Centre in 1976, which was the first community exercise-based CR unit in the UK.
Bethell has overseen the exercise treatment of thousands of cardiac and other patients. He has expanded his focus over the past decade to include the use of exercise as a preventive treatment, particularly for frailer older people, to help them maintain and improve mobility and independence.
After 53 years as a medical practitioner, Bethell is increasingly convinced that more exercise is the answer to most of the population’s health problems. Inactivity has contributed to many modern health issues, including obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and frailty in old age.
Furthermore, Bethell first entered the realm of exercise as therapy in 1969 and does not believe that any treatment he has applied since then has been as effective in maintaining health and well-being. His main message to readers is the importance of exercise in later life to maintain and improve mobility and independence.