In a two-part series on exercise and sports medicine in The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal, to coincide with the London Olympics, researchers belonging to the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, University of California, University of Sydney and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have called for categorizing exercise as the fifth vital sign of the condition of the body after temperature, blood pressure, pulse and respiratory rate. According to the researchers, participation in a sport is associated with a 20-40 per cent reduction in all causes of mortality, and, therefore, they have recommended that exercise be considered one of the physiological indicators of a human body. The Lancet series has also recommended that exercise be recorded in a patient’s electronic medical records and routine history. The Lancet recommendations are significant in the sense that physical exercise has come to be reckoned with as one of the most important components of a person’s health course. It augurs well that Indian doctors have welcomed The Lancet suggestions in view of the country being the world capital of diabetes, apart from it facing an obesity epidemic. This will also prompt more and more people to resort to physical exercise to keep themselves hale and hearty. The Lancet has done a good job.