Money does make the mare go whether it has legs or no

A study has suggested that financial incentives -as modest as 5-dollars-per-week - can boost the amount of exercise people do.

Lead author Marc Mitchell, University of Toronto PhD candidate and Cardiac Rehabilitation Supervisor at Toronto Rehab and University of Toronto exercise psychologist Guy Faulkner and exercise physiologist Jack Goodman studied 1,500 patients for their study.

Dr. Paul Oh, Medical Director, Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation Program, Toronto Rehab, said that their research shows that people who participate in cardiac rehab programs after experiencing a major heart event cut their risk of dying from another cardiac event by as a much as 50 per cent.

He said that one of their concerns is there are people who need cardiac rehab, but are not receiving it or sticking with the program over the long term.

The study has been published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.