Close to Last and Still a Winner?
October 13th, 2009 | by admin |“Close to last” isn’t usually a phrase we connect in our mind with success. Indeed, not many things in life, it seems, count much at all if you don’t “hit a grand slam.” Fortunately, this may not be an absolute when it comes to an extended lifespan. As a chiropractor in Seattle, who has many senior patients and who is also a firm believer in the advantages of exercise at every age, I was very curious about 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 next nine years 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 certainly bad news if you are a resolute couch potato. But, it is genuinely good news for those who haven’t quite hit rock bottom in the sedentary lifestyle department but are not, by any stretch of the imagination, “exertive.” Apparently, those individuals who remain even moderately fit as they age may have greater longevity than those who are entirely out-of-shape, the study suggests.
Between 1986 and 2006, researchers determined the fitness levels of 4,384 middle-aged and senior adults during exercise treatmill tests. The researchers then observed 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 importance of physical fitness itself. In an email to Reuters Health, lead researcher, Dr. Sandra Mandic of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, stated: “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 were not getting the minimum recommended amount of exercise, which is at least 30 minutes of moderate activity (like brisk walking) five or more days a week. “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.”
After classifying the study group participants by fitness levels, the researchers discovered that 13 percent of those who were in slightly better shape had died during the study period. But, 25 percent of the least-fit men and women had died during the same period. Only 6 percent of the most-fit group (i.e., the ones who “hit a grand slam,” so to speak) had died during the follow-up period.
The five fitness-level groups showed little variance, overall, in their reported exercise routines during most of their adult lives, but notably, 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.”
Since fitness is overtly connected to longevity (and, in this study, despite weight and health issues like high blood pressure and high cholesterol), And, of course, imagine the health benefits we could all obtain if we worked our way up into the higher levels of fitness.
SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and exercise, August 2009.