“Close” isn’t usually a word we associate with success. Indeed, not many things in life, it seems, count much at all if you don’t “hit the bull’s eye.” Luckily for some, this may not be absolutely true when it comes to living longer. As a chiropractor in Oakland, who has many middle-aged patients and who is also a firm believer in the advantages of exercise at every age, 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 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. (To put it another way, those 20 percent who were almost at the lowest fitness levels.) This is the proverbial “bad news/good news” type of result. It is certainly bad news if you are a dyed-in-the-wool spectator in life. However, it is definitely good news for those who haven’t entirely embraced a sedentary lifestyle but are not, by definition, very active. Apparently, those men and women who remain only moderately fit as they age may have greater longevity 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 men and women during exercise treatmill tests. For approximately nine years thereafter, the researchers followed the study groups progress. The study considered such factors like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. This, in and of itself, highlights the importance 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 noted: “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.”
Dividing the participants into five groups based on fitness levels, the researchers found that 25 percent of the least-fit individuals had died during the study period, as opposed to 13 percent of those who were in slightly better shape. Among adults in the most-fit group (the ones who “hit the bull’s eyes,” so to speak) only 6 percent died during the follow-up period.
The five fitness-level groups reported little dissimilarity, overall, in their reported exercise habits during most of their adult lives, but notably, 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.”
In this particular study, despite weight and other health issues such as those mentioned above, fitness is clearly linked to longevity. As such, exercise is crucial to the extension of our lifespan. And, perhaps it goes without saying, imagine the health advantages we could all obtain if we worked towards the higher levels of fitness.
SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, August 2009.
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