Exercise Log Blog

I read an article today about running to live longer.  The Standford school of medicine study followed 538 runners over age 50 and a comparison group.  What they found was absolutely terrific and is great news for all runners everywhere.

Mortality rates were pushed out, injuries were less freqeunt and other diseases were less prevalent.  HEre are a few quick figures:

After 19 years, 34% of the non-runners had died, where only 15% of runners had died.

“Runners’ initial disability was 16 years later than nonrunners’…By and large, the runners have stayed healthy.” - James F. Fries

They even found that runners required FEWER total knee replacements than runners!  They actually found that the natural motion of running, as compared to some other unnatural physical activities, like football and standing en pointe in ballet, was not as damaging to the joints.

Of course the expected slowing in cardiovascular deaths was observed among runners, but that’s not all.  Researchers also observed fewer deaths from cancer, neurological disease, infections and other causes.

Running slows the aging clock

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 9:26 am and is filed under Running, health and wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.