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A new review of reviews of the benefits of exercise tells us that exercise is as close as we're likely to get to a panacea.
Writing in the Scandanavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, an international team of researchers reviewed all of the highest quality reviews and meta-analyses to date on the relationship between exercise and health in people in their sixties or older. The smallest group studied comprised 855 individuals, while the largest study tracked more than 400,000. The results are impressive:
If you're 60 or more and physically active, compared to your less-active peers, you're:
22 percent less likely to die from any cause during a comparable time period
25 to 40 percent less likely die from cardiovascular disease
12 percent less likely to develop breast or prostate cancer
29 to 39 percent less likely to fracture a bone
50 percent less likely to become disabled (unable to perform basic activities of daily living)
26 to 38 percent less likely to experience cognitive decline or impairment
32 to 42 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's Disease
14 to 21 percent less likely to develop some other kind of dementia
17 to 21 percent less likely to suffer from depression
and significantly more likely to experience healthy aging, a better
quality of life and more years spent in good mental and physical health.
To some extent, the range of outcomes comes from different studies using different criteria. However, for most of these relationships, more exercise produced better outcomes. The researchers conclude that any amount of physical activity has some benefit, but recommend at least 75 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity.
"Physical activity plays a key role in the 'compression of morbidity,'" the authors write, "decreasing the time spent in ill-health as people age and ensuring that an increase in life expectancy is also an increase in life-time spent in good health."
Not a bad payoff for investing at 10 to 15 minutes a day exercising.
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REA
Seniors exercising
Credit: Asahia/Wikimedia Commons
Writing in the Scandanavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, an international team of researchers reviewed all of the highest quality reviews and meta-analyses to date on the relationship between exercise and health in people in their sixties or older. The smallest group studied comprised 855 individuals, while the largest study tracked more than 400,000. The results are impressive:
If you're 60 or more and physically active, compared to your less-active peers, you're:
22 percent less likely to die from any cause during a comparable time period
25 to 40 percent less likely die from cardiovascular disease
12 percent less likely to develop breast or prostate cancer
29 to 39 percent less likely to fracture a bone
50 percent less likely to become disabled (unable to perform basic activities of daily living)
26 to 38 percent less likely to experience cognitive decline or impairment
32 to 42 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's Disease
14 to 21 percent less likely to develop some other kind of dementia
17 to 21 percent less likely to suffer from depression
and significantly more likely to experience healthy aging, a better
quality of life and more years spent in good mental and physical health.
To some extent, the range of outcomes comes from different studies using different criteria. However, for most of these relationships, more exercise produced better outcomes. The researchers conclude that any amount of physical activity has some benefit, but recommend at least 75 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity.
"Physical activity plays a key role in the 'compression of morbidity,'" the authors write, "decreasing the time spent in ill-health as people age and ensuring that an increase in life expectancy is also an increase in life-time spent in good health."
Not a bad payoff for investing at 10 to 15 minutes a day exercising.
-----
REA
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