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Thanks, I had a look. And you're right, they found a short term benefit for increasing exercise only in the short term. In the long term there was no clear benefit, but they noted that they had no way to measure if the physical activity reported 33 years ago was consistently followed through the end points of their study. Which maybe why there is a short term association, but no long term association. The last questionnaire went out in 1990, they just followed up on mortality.
This study is a great example of why trying to do this study is hard. Even if we are to assume that self-reported assessments are accurate, they would need to realistically send out this questionnaire every day to get a full picture of volume of exercise being done. Instead, what they're capturing is activity levels at the time of the questionnaire, and not really anything before or after.
Good points about any research concerning exercise. It is impossible to control all the variables in any study on exercise since it is impossible to treat humans like mice in cages where all variables can be controlled. It is also impossible to start a research study with all subjects who are similar. Some subjects may have never exercised before while others exercise extensively. You can't expect them to have similar results after a certain length of time.
You know what I do? I walk. My daughter, who is 21 years younger than me, runs. She has all sorts of structural health issues, and I have zero health issues. Hmmmmm...
Oh and I am fluffy while she is very slim. I stick to a basically gluten free diet and she eats all sorts of stuff.
There are people who exercise and take care of themselves but still get sick with a terminal illness. Then there are people who do nothing and live forever. My mother's only exercise was to get up and change the tv channel until her kids were old enough to do it for her. She just turned 95 y/o.
If exercising makes you feel/look good then do it and enjoy the boost. There are no guarantees of anything in life, though, and exercising to hedge your bets might not work either. Meantime, have fun.
My father's theory is you only have so many exercise hours in your body....don't use them up unnecessarily. He is 94 and has never exercised a day in his life. His father lived to just under 100 years of age and exercised with hard physical work until his mid 90's.....walked 5 miles a day. In my opinion, genetics seems to play the larger part. That said, I choose to stay very physically active....most of the things I enjoy require being in good physical condition. I believe exercise will give you a better quality of life but may not add significant time to your lifespan.
Some studies suggest that VO2 max is the single best predictor of mortality.
The only way to improve this number is exercise, and the best way to maintain healthy levels is also exercise.
This is the famous study:
Quote:
Results:
A total of 5,107 men with a mean age of 48.8 ± 5.4 years were included in the study. During the 46 years of follow-up, 4,700 (92%) men died; 2,149 (42.1%) of the men died of CVD. Compared with below the lower limit of normal CRF, low normal CRF was associated with 2.1 years (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.7 to 3.4; p = 0.002), high normal with 2.9 years (95% CI: 1.5 to 4.2; p < 0.001), and above upper limit of normal with 4.9 years (95% CI: 3.1 to 6.7; p < 0.001) longer mean life expectancy. Each unit increase in Vo2max was associated with a 45-day (95% CI: 30 to 61; p < 0.001) increase in longevity. Estimates for cardiovascular mortality were similar to all-cause mortality. Results were essentially unchanged when excluding individuals who died within the first 10 years of follow-up, suggesting a minimal role of reverse causation.
Conclusions:
CRF was significantly related to longevity over the course of 4 decades in middle-aged, employed men free of CVD. The benefits of higher midlife CRF extend well into the later part of life.
During strenuous bouts of cardiovascular activity, your body is forced to find alternate ways of getting oxygen to the heart. As a result, you increase the number of blood vessels. This is one of the many reasons cardiovascular exercise leads to lower BP. But also, during a heart attack, increases your odds of survival, as now you have more routes for blood to flow in case one gets blocked.
The many benefits of exercise.
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