Exercise and you'll live longer

Nov 16 2005

According to a new report even moderate levels of physical exercise can prevent heart disease and prolong life, and the degree of benefit increases as the level of physical activity rises.

The benefits of physical activity are widely recognised, but it is unclear whether the level of physical activity significantly affects life expectancy or the length of time people enjoy life free of heart disease.

In order to address these questions, researchers in the Netherlands evaluated data on a group of people over age 50 who participated in the Framingham Heart Study.

This study has followed 5,200 residents of Framingham, Massachusetts, over the past 46 years.

After adjusting for smoking, co-illnesses, and other relevant factors, the authors estimate that subjects who participated in moderate physical activity starting at age 50 lived 1.3 years longer, and 1.1 year longer free of heart disease, than sedentary subjects.

They found that those who participated in high levels of physical activity lived 3.5 years longer overall, and had 3.2 years longer free of cardiovascular disease, and the differences were similar for both genders.

Dr Oscar H. Franco, from Erasmus MC University Medical Centre Rotterdam in the Netherlands and his colleagues, concluded that following an active lifestyle is an effective way to achieve healthy ageing.

In another related study, researchers looked at the impact of a doctor's advice to exercise at various frequencies and intensities on exercise behaviour in 492 healthy but sedentary men and women ages 30 to 69 years.

According to the records that the subjects kept, the amount of exercise they actually completed was lower than the levels prescribed, the investigators report.

Apparently when a doctor prescribes exercise to people, they do about 60 percent of the amount they are asked to do.

This implies that doctors probably have to encourage people to aim high both in terms of frequency and pace when using walking as an exercise to achieve observable benefit.