October 13th, 2009
“Close” isn’t generally a word we connect in our mind with achievement. Indeed, very little in life, it seems, counts much at all if you don’t “hit a bull’s eye.” Well, it would seem that this may not be an absolute when it comes to longevity. As a chiropractor in Seattle, who has many middle-aged patients and who is also fully dedicated to encouraging my patients to exercise at every age level, I was very curious about the following study.
Researchers found that of the “least-fit” versus the “slightly more fit” of the nearly 4,400 healthy Americans 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. (That is to say, those 20 percent who were nearly at the lowest fitness levels.) This is the familiar “bad news/good news” situation. It is obviously bad news if you are a resolute spectator in life. But, it is definitely good news for those who haven’t quite hit rock bottom in the sedentary lifestyle department but are not, by any stretch of the imagination, “exertive.” Apparently, those men and women who stay only moderately fit as they grow older may live longer than those who are totally 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 nearly nine years thereafter, the researchers followed the study groups progress. Such factors as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure were considered in the study. This, in and of itself, highlights the value of physical fitness itself. 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 participants at the least-fit level failed to get at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, five or more days a week, which was the minimum recommended amount of exercise. “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.”
Classifying the study group participants by fitness levels, the researchers discovered that 25 percent of the least-fit individuals had died during the study period, versus 13 percent of those who were slightly more in shape. Only 6 percent of the most-fit group (i.e., the ones who “hit the bull’s eye,” so to speak) had died during the follow-up period.
The five fitness-level groups presented little difference, overall, in their reported exercise practices during most of their adult lives, but conspicuously, they varied 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 linked to longevity (and, in this research result, despite weight and health issues like high blood pressure and high cholesterol), And, perhaps it goes without saying, imagine the health benefits we could all derive if we worked towards the higher levels of fitness.
SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, August 2009.
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