Exercise In Middle Age To Live Longer
Men who were previously inactive but exercised between the ages of 50 and 60 were likely to live as long as those who exercised all their lives.
Swedish researchers from Uppsala University, led by Karl Michaelsson, monitored more than 2,200 men from the age of 50 (in around 1970) until death. Their findings are published in Total mortality after changes in leisure time physical activity in 50 year old men: 35 year follow-up of population based cohort in the British Medical Journal. They asked the men about their exercise habits at age 50, and classified them into three groups:
- High activity - three hours of sports or heavy gardening per week
- Moderate activity - several hours of walking or cycling per week
- Sedentary - spent most of their free time watching TV
They found that (once factors like weight and smoking were taken into account), the men with the highest levels of activity lived 2.3 years longer than the sedentary men, and 1.1 years longer than the men who were moderately active.
But they also found that increasing activity levels to high between the age of 50 and 60 had the biggest impact, even when men had been only moderately active, or inactive, until aged 50. According to Michaelsson, their lives were prolonged by the same amount as for people who give up smoking during this time:
Increased physical activity in middle age is eventually followed by a reduction in mortality to the same level as seen among men with constantly high physical activity. This reduction is comparable with that associated with smoking cessation. (from the British Medical Journal)
The important message here is that it's never too late to start leading a healthy, active lifestyle. And of course exercise isn't just important for the over-50s -- as Cathy Ross, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, told the BBC (who reported on this news story as Middle age 'key for exercising'):
People who are physically active are half as likely to get cardiovascular disease as those that are inactive. Being active at any age helps control your weight, reduce blood pressure and cholesterol and will provide long term benefits for your heart health and general health.
Are you a 50+ exerciser? Or if you're younger, do you hope to stay active well into middle-age and beyond? Let us know your views in the comments.
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I am in my 20's, and have a very active lifestyle that I can't imagine will change as I get older. I teach that exercise not only serves a purpose for increasing the lifespan, but it also increases quality of life dramatically.
From a movement and athletic standpoint, aging is the process of losing complexity. Even for someone in their 20's, something they were easily able to perform a few years earlier may become quite a challenge. Aging doesn't begin later in life, it begins as soon as the body is done growing. Different systems in the body age in different ways and in different stages, but it all begins once the body is done growing.
I say it's better to build a foundation of lifestyle habits early in life, rather than suffer from a lower quality of life due to health and fitness problems.
To your health and success,
John Sifferman
ReplyFitness Professional
Well I'm knocking on the door of 50...but have maintained a pretty steady exercise schedule for the past 25 years...but I have noticed myself recently starting to add about 40 minutes of vigorous gardening to my day about 2-3 times a week. I can't say I did it with fitness in mind - I just love the sense of serenity that gardening gives me.... even if it is yielding a pick to break up hard ground. And of course you can't help but love the results: organic home-grown veggies AND an increased sense of well being.
ReplyActive living is a lifestyle that needs to begin at a young age. I personally think the difficulty is adapting this lifestyle if you've previously been sedentary. The benefits, however, are extremely worthwhile. I don't have research in front of me, but I'd think an active lifestyle would also lead to an overall happier outlook on life.
ReplyI am 51 years old. I was heavy as a youth and lost weight in my high school years the wrong way. I put some weight back on in college but after college, I started up my exercise program again. I will be the first to say that I was not eating right way back then and my exercise knowledge was not what it is now. I pushed myself to learn more as I got older & quite honestly I was in my 30's before I started to get it right although exercising along the way. I did my first natural body building contest at 37.
Now at 51, I know more than ever, I work out harder and "better" than I did when I was younger & I can eat more too... even going thru "the change". I never intend to give up exercising!
ReplyI was a very sedentary teenager and I went into college being very overweight. I realized that if I kept up my inactive lifestyle, I would probably continue to gain weight. I started exercising and eventually started running and strength training. Now I'm in my 20's, but I do plan on continuing my active lifestyle well into my 50's, 60's, and beyond. I plan on being like my grandma, who's 75 and still takes a 45 minute power walk every day and is in really good shape.
It's very interesting...I look at my inlaws and my father in law, who is incredibly active...he walks and does farmwork every day and seems a lot younger than the 69 years old that he is. And I compare him to his wife, my mother in law, who's very overweight and sedentary. She has a much more reduced quality of life and she seems a good 10 years older than the 62 years old that she is. It definitely shows you that physical activity can make your quality of life better, no matter what your age is.
ReplyGreat post. Just goes to show you the value of an active lifestyle, no matter what age you are.
ReplyI think that those researches are too conservative. 2.1 years of life longer on average for active older person compare to totaly inactive? From my experiences of observing active older people that difference must be 10 years of life expectancy.
ReplyThey say that working steady midnights will shorten your lifespan too! Are you saying that exercise will lenghten your nights on the night shift? I don't know but if I have a choice I would just kick when the time comes instead of prolonging my night shift!
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