Almost Last and Still a Winner?
“Almost last” aren’t exactly words we affiliate with accomplishment. Indeed, not many things in life, it seems, count much at all if you don’t “hit a bull’s eye.” Well, it would seem that this may not be entirely the case when it comes to an extended lifespan. As a chiropractor in San Diego 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” in a recent study of nearly 4,400 healthy Americans, roughly 20 percent with the lowest physical fitness levels were twice as likely to die 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 familiar “bad news/good news” outcome. It is obviously bad news if you are a confirmed sofa spud. But, it is genuinely good news for those who haven’t quite hit rock bottom in the sedentary lifestyle department but are not, by definition, energetic. Apparently, those people who remain 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 men and women during exercise treatmill tests. The researchers then followed their progress for approximately nine years. The study took into consideration factors like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. This, in and of itself, underscores the significants of being physically fit. In an email to Reuters Health, lead researcher, Dr. Sandra Mandic of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, 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 least-fit study participants 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.”
Separating the participants into five groups based on fitness levels, the researchers discovered that 25 percent of the least-fit individuals had died during the study period, versus 13 percent of those who were in slightly better shape. Only 6 percent of the most-fit group (i.e., the ones who “hit the bull’s eye,” so to speak) had died during the follow-up period.
The five fitness-level groups presented little variance, overall, in their reported exercise practices during most of their adult lives, but notably, they contrasted 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 issues such as those mentioned above, fitness is clearly linked to longevity. Therefore, exercise is vital to the extension of our lifespan. And, perhaps it goes without saying, imagine the health benefits we could all experience 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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