Running can dramatically reduce the risk of death, irrespective of how fast and how much you run, a new study finds.
Being physically active has many health benefits. Previous studies have touted the benefits or running and walking on the heart. A new study conducted on similar lines found that running can reduce the risk of death, irrespective of how fast and how much you run.
The study was conducted on 55,137 adults aged between 18 and 100 years. Researcher examined the participants for 15 years to determine any potential association between longevity and running. They used data from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about their running habits. During the study period, 3,413 participants died, including 1,217 whose deaths were related to cardiovascular disease. Among these, only 24 percent said they ran in their leisure time.
Comparatively, people who reported running had a 30 percent lower risk of death from all causes and a 45 percent lower risk of death from heart disease or stroke. Researchers also noted that runners lived three years longer than non-runners on an average. These findings were made after influencing factors like sex, age, body mass index, health conditions, smoking status or alcohol use were taken into consideration.
"Since time is one of the strongest barriers to participate in physical activity, the study may motivate more people to start running and continue to run as an attainable health goal for mortality benefits," DC (Duck-chul) Lee, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the Iowa State University Kinesiology Department in Ames, Iowa, said in a press statement. "Running may be a better exercise option than more moderate intensity exercises for healthy but sedentary people since it produces similar, if not greater, mortality benefits in five to 10 minutes compared to the 15 to 20 minutes per day of moderate intensity activity that many find too time consuming."
The CDC recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week which includes brisk walking and jogging for adults aged between 18 and 64 years.
The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
