We all know that running, or any cardiovascular exercise, does many great things for your body. It cuts down on the risk of heart disease, cognitive decline, hypertension, cancer, depression, and obesity, among other things. Exercise also, as I've written about many times before, improves your cognitive functioning and higher order thinking. It is better than any pill you could take. So we always assumed, of course, that runners lived longer because they were healthier. But was it ever proven?
Well, now we have proof. At the recent American Heart Association's annual epidemiology and prevention conference, Dr. Jarett Berry from the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center presented results from a longitudinal study showing that regular exercisers did in fact live longer. Researchers studied 2,087 men and women who had physicals in the 1970s and 1980s. At the time of their exam, all were between 50 and 69 years old. Those with a history of heart problems or cancer were excluded from the study. The difference between this study and others that stressed the connection between fitness and longevity is that Berry's subjects underwent a treadmill test when they had their physical, whereas with most other studies, people just estimated--or likely overestimated--their physical activity level. But the treadmill does not lie!
In 2006, 63% of the men and 74% of the women from the study were still alive. Men were nearly 1.8 tines as likely to reach age 85 if they were fit as opposed to non-fit, and women were 2.2 times as likely.
Of course, beginning an exercise routine at any age will have fantastic health benefits, and even getting off the couch and briskly walking for 30 minutes a day will do wonders.
Some other highlights from the study:
- Fitness level was more important than quitting smoking when it comes to health benefits (this must explain the people I see leave the gym then light up).
- On the whole, people exercise less after age 30.
- One doctor involved in the study said that if you make it to middle age "with optimal risk numbers and healthy behavior, you've essentially abolished your risk of cardiovascular disease." So if you are dying to start smoking, wait until you are at least 50.v
- Regular exercise lowers blood pressure, gives you better cholesterol numbers, and lowers blood sugar--the trifecta against heart disease.
But doc, that's great and all, but what does this translate into as far as longevity? On average, says Berry, if you are out of shape in your 50s, you will die eight years sooner than people who are in shape. (It should be noted that Berry's exact words were that if you are not fit, your life span "is eight years shorter than if you are fit," but I prefer the much more direct scare tactic of impending death. Why sugarcoat?)
Of course, another presenter at the same conference also gave us this conclusion: long term exposure to traffic particles increases blood pressure. So for all of you urban runners, maybe it's just two steps forward and two steps back; you need to run to tame the high blood pressure that running in the city gives you. But as I wrote about a few months ago, one recent study showed that running in a natural environment will strenghten your cognitive powers, specifically your executive attention.
Full Wall Street Journal article here on how running adds years.
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