Next to Last and Still a Winner?
October 13th, 2009 | by admin |“Next to last” isn’t exactly a phrase we affiliate with success. In point of fact, very few things in life, it seems, count much at all if you don’t “hit a bull’s eye.” Fortunately, this may not be absolutely true when it comes to living longer. As a family chiropractor who has many older patients and who is also fully dedicated to encouraging my patients to exercise at every age level, I was very interested in 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 were twice as likely to die 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” situation. It is obviously bad news if you are a resolute sofa spud. But, it is undoubtedly good news for those who haven’t completely embraced a sedentary lifestyle but are not, by any means, energetic. Apparently, those people who continue to be just moderately fit as they age may have a longer lifespan than those who are completely out-of-shape, the study suggests.
Between 1986 and 2006, researchers assessed the fitness levels of 4,384 middle-aged and senior adults during exercise treatmill tests. For an average of nine years thereafter, the researchers pursued the study groups progress. The study considered such factors like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. This, in and of itself, highlights the significants 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 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 found that 25 percent of the least-fit men and women had died during the study period, as opposed to 13 percent of those who were in slightly better shape. Only 6 percent of the most-fit group (i.e., the ones who “hit a 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 significantly, 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.”
In this particular study, irrespective of weight and other health problems such as those mentioned above, fitness is undeniably linked to longevity. Therefore, exercise is crucial to extending our lifespan. And, naturally, just think of the health advantages we could all obtain if we worked our way up into the higher levels of fitness.
SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, August 2009.
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