Photo: Fabio Comparelli
Running & Longevity. Kick-Up The Cardio, Not The Bucket!:
When most people think about their health, it’s almost always about weight-loss.
And as we’ve shown many times before, Nutrition is king when it comes to that.
The question then becomes, “Why Exercise?” “Isn’t that just for vain gym-rats?”
As PE programs seem to dwindle away from schools and we get fatter as a nation, those might seem like increasingly-valid questions.
But as Science progresses, it finds new proof for old ideas; Ex: Food-as-Medicine.
And an Australian team just found out some concrete info on why you might want to consider getting back into exercise…
The Awful Truth About Exercise:
Let’s face it, exercise is not always easy.
And if you do your workouts at health-clubs, we can also subtract simple or cheap from that proposition, too.
Those are a few of the reasons why public health officials will also beg you to find one you like better than the others,
While they’re also begging you to stop sitting and do some kind, ANY KIND, of exercise at-all.
Because with the decrease in public-health stats, we’re looking like a country that finds all activity just too inconvenient.
But The Short Answer for the current work is that Running has been shown to have such a positive-effect on health, it can keep you alive longer than your colleagues who don’t run.
Read on to find out the details…
Running Does Not Have To Be 26.2 Miles Of Pure Suffering:
So when we think about Exercise, the primary images many of us conjure are those of suffering.
-And near-medieval torture on hellish contraptions.
But as we talked about before, Exercise that you like, and even short-duration exercise, are two big keys to success.
Because getting started & going on anything is really The Science Of Baby-Steps.
That’s a good thing to keep in-mind, because one of the exercises that conjures up the greatest images of suffering is Running,
Especially when people visualize Marathoners.
But lucky for all of us, that’s not what the study looked-at.
Return On Exercise-Investment, The Amazing Study Results:
So Dr. Zeljko Pedisic and his colleagues at Victoria University examined studies on Running.
And across 14 different ones, that spanned more than 232,000 subjects,
Each of whom was tracked for as little as 5.5, and as many as 35 years.
They found that people who ran regularly lived longer and were healthier.
And compared to people who didn’t run at-all, the following percentages applied to the benefits.
Runners had:
1) 27% reduction in risk of death from any cause
2) 30% reduction in risk of death from any cardiovascular-type disease
3) 23% lower risk of death from any type of cancer
But that’s not the best part of the story.
Short-Duration Exercise. The Results Get Even Better:
In-addition to that list of benefits sounding a little short when compared with other posts we’ve done before,
There’s one-ish more miracle.
1) People who got those benefits only had to run 50 minutes a week
1a) Even if they just did it all in 1 shot
2) Running more than 50 minutes/week did not provide greater benefits against early-mortality
So when you compare that to other estimates, like the traditional recommendation of 30 minutes of cardio/day,
Or 120 minutes/week,
Running, or what might be called jogging or even light-jogging so as not to imply outright-sprinting,
Seems incredibly-effective for the time spent.
Other Studies Suggest MANY More Benefits:
Because Running doesn’t just help the previous items.
It actually does a lot more.
1) Cardiovascular Exercise produces brain-cell growth & detoxification hormone, BDNF
1a) Running does this better than any Cardio
2) Cardiovascular Exercise Grows New Brain-Cells
2a) Running also does this better than any Cardio
3) These two combine to not only Grow the new cells, but create the chemical-environment that keeps them from being pruned-away.
4) Produces large quantities of Endo-Cannabinoids that reduce inflammation & may clean the brain
5) Increases function in the brain’s Regulatory, Planning, and Decision-Making centers
6) Increases people’s mental ability to recover quickly from negative events
7) Reduce age-related Brain-Shrinkage, Alzheimer’s & Dementia, with effects that can last up to 3 decades.
8) Reduce your effective “Brain Age” by 1 decade.
9) Reduces High Blood-Pressure
10) Reduces Rates of Diabetes
And all of those are in-addition to the basically-endless list of things that 30 minutes of cardio/day can fix,
That Dr. Mike Evans lists here.
Running Helps You Live Longer. Don’t Ruin That Being A Weekend-Warrior!:
Although you probably don’t want to Gung-Ho a new program and try to do too much too soon,
And you should always check with your own doctor if you’re okay to start-out for a specific exercise.
Those pros can often help you find & fix problems first through physical-therapy,
The way many personal-trainers for the feature-film industry will get a star’s injury & mobility up to snuff before serious training.
Once you’re cleared, you probably want to start in baby-steps, which is great for just about anything.
Especially if you’ve got the right shoes and insoles.
You can even use just starting-out walking as an excuse to get some time in the park, or on a nature-run,
And get some quick Forest-Bathing or Nature-Exposure in there to boost-up your health some more.
It’s Also Never Too Late!:
The best thing about Cardio of any kind, or even Running,
Unless your doctor declares you too unhealthy or injured to do it,
Is that it’s never too late.
Another study on it showed that even people who never exercised before but started in their 40s,
Reduced their rates of early-mortality by the same amount as people who’d been exercising since their 20s.
And those researchers were just as surprised at getting that result as you are reading it!
Strange but true!
Now that’s not to say you should procrastinate, and actually wait until the last minute,
Because there are several benefits along the way to be sure,
But listen to Dr. Mike Evans and Zeljko Pedisic.
Their advice on cardio & a little bit of running just might make your life a lot longer!
Links:
• Source: Victoria University
• Source Study: BMJ – Is running associated with a lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and is the more the better? A systematic review and meta-analysis
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