LACK of exercise is costing the North-East NHS about £52m every year, according to latest statistics.

Figures from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) reveal the care costs of treating people with long-term conditions, including coronary heart disease, due to lack of physical activity.

The NHS care costs of physical inactivity exceeds £900m each year, of which more than half (£542m) is a result of coronary heart disease (CHD).

In the North-East, the primary and secondary care costs of CHD attributable to physical inactivity is about £27m a year.

Regular physical activity can help reduce your risk of developing CHD and can put years on your life.

There are about 2.3m people living with CHD across the UK.

National guidelines recommend that adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week. Moderate-intensity activity will raise your heart rate and make you breathe faster and feel warmer.

BHF figures released in Physical Activity Statistics 2015, complied by Oxford University, show that 44 per cent of UK adults do no moderate physical activity compared with just 14 per cent in the Netherlands.

The charity claims this physical inactivity is contributing to many more people suffering from heart disease.

Catherine Kelly, BHF spokeswoman, said: “It is staggering the amount of money that inactivity is costing health services in the North-East every year.

“Encouraging people to be more active and less sedentary will help reduce their risk of heart disease and will save millions of pounds for health services.

“BHF research has shown that even making small, more active changes to your daily routine can improve your heart health.

“If we are to ease the burden of this country’s eye-watering physical inactivity costs then people need to take action to improve their health.”