“Almost” isn’t generally a word we affiliate with accomplishment. Indeed, not many things in life, it seems, count much at all if you don’t “hit the nail on the head.” Well, it would seem that this may not be an absolute when it comes to living longer. As a chiropractor in Tampa, who has many middle-aged patients and who is also a firm believer in the advantages of exercise at every age, 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” in a recent study of nearly 4,400 healthy Americans, roughly 20 percent with the lowest physical fitness levels doubled the risk of dying over the nine years of the study as the 20 percent with the next-lowest fitness levels. (That is to say, those 20 percent who were almost at the lowest fitness levels.) This is the proverbial “bad news/good news” outcome. It is obviously bad news if you are a confirmed sofa spud. However, it is undoubtedly good news for those who haven’t quite hit rock bottom in the sedentary lifestyle department but are not, by any means, very active. Apparently, those men and women who remain even moderately fit as they age may live longer than those who are totally out-of-shape, the study suggests.
The study included 4,384 middle-aged and older adults whose fitness levels were determined during exercise treadmill tests sometime between 1986 and 2006. For an average of nine years thereafter, the researchers pursued 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 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 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 participants into five groups based on fitness levels, the researchers determined that 25 percent of the least-fit men and women had died during the study period, versus 13 percent of those who were in slightly better shape. Among adults in the most-fit group (the ones who “hit the nail on the head”, so to speak) only 6 percent died during the follow-up period.
The five fitness-level groups showed little variance, overall, in their reported exercise habits 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.”
And, of course, 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.