Archive for the ‘exercise’ Category
Almost Last and Still a Winner?
“Almost last” aren’t usually words we affiliate with achievement. In point of fact, very few things in life, it seems, count much at all if you don’t “hit a grand slam.” Well, it would seem that this may not be entirely the case when it comes to living longer. As a chiropractor who has many senior patients and who is also fully dedicated to encouraging my patients to exercise at every age level, I was very happy to read about the results of the following study.
Researchers found that of the “least-fit” versus the “slightly more fit” of the nearly 4,400 healthy U.S. adults in their recent study, roughly 20 percent with the lowest physical fitness levels doubled the risk of dying over the next nine years as the 20 percent with the next-lowest fitness levels. (To put it another way, those 20 percent who were almost at the lowest fitness levels.) This is the familiar “bad news/good news” outcome. It is obviously bad news if you are a confirmed spectator in life. However, it is undoubtedly good news for those who haven’t completely embraced a sedentary lifestyle but are not, by definition, very active. Apparently, those individuals who continue to be just moderately fit as they age may have a longer lifespan than those who are entirely out-of-shape, the study suggests.
The study included 4,384 middle-aged and senior men and women whose fitness levels were assessed during exercise treadmill tests sometime between 1986 and 2006. For an average of nine years thereafter, the researchers observed the study groups progress. The study considered such factors like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. This, in and of itself, underscores the value of being physically fit. In an email to Reuters Health, Dr. Sandra Mandic, of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and lead researcher of the study wrote: “Our findings suggest that a sedentary lifestyle, rather than differences in cardiovascular risk factors or age, may explain the two-fold higher mortality rates in the least-fit versus slightly more fit individuals.”
Nearly two-thirds of the least-fit study participants were not getting the minimum recommended amount of exercise, which is at least 30 minutes of moderate activity (like brisk walking) five or more days a week. “These results emphasize the importance of improving and maintaining high fitness levels by engaging in regular physical activity,” Mandic said, “particularly in poorly-fit individuals.”
Dividing the study group participants by fitness levels, the researchers determined that 25 percent of the least-fit individuals had died during the study period, as opposed to 13 percent of those who were slightly more in shape. Only 6 percent of the most-fit group (i.e., the ones who “hit a grand slam,” so to speak) had died during the follow-up period.
The five fitness-level groups showed little variance, overall, in their reported exercise routines during most of their adult lives, but significantly, they differed in activity levels only in recent years. “Since it is recent physical activity that offers protection,” Mandic said, “it is important to maintain regular physical activity throughout life.”
Since fitness is overtly connected to longevity (and, in this study, irrespective of weight and health problems like high blood pressure and high cholesterol), And, perhaps it goes without saying, imagine the health benefits we could all obtain if we sought to achieve the higher levels of fitness.
SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, August 2009.