In our hectic world, everyone seems to be working and going through ups and downs in their daily lives. With the exception of a select few who wish to leave this world early for reasons that are only known to themselves, we all want to live long lives by maintaining good health.
According to a British Journal of Sports Medicine study, you can live an additional five years if you want to.
“I was surprised to find that the loss of life years in the USA due to low levels of physical activity might rival the losses due to smoking and high blood pressure,” said senior study author Dr. Lennert Veerman, professor of public health in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at Griffith University in Australia, via email.
According to a recent study, increasing your level of physical activity could prolong your life by a number of years.
The relationships between longevity and physical activity have been the subject of numerous studies. In fact, a 2019 study discovered that increased physical activity lowers the risk of dying young.
In that study, accelerometers—wearable activity-tracking devices—were used to measure the participants’ levels of activity.
According to the 2019 study, the correlation between physical activity and early death is roughly twice as strong when measured using accelerometry as when measured using surveys or questionnaires.
The most recent study’s authors used physical activity data from hip accelerometers worn by adults 40 years of age or older who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2003 to 2006 for at least 10 hours on four or more days.
Because activity-dependent mortality rates are stable until age 40, after which they fluctuate, the results are based on this age group. According to the authors, the use of historical activity data was made to maintain methodological consistency with the 2019 study.
Based on the 2017 mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics, which the authors believed was connected to the activity levels in 2003–2006, they employed a life timetable.
Based on this data, the authors made predictions about how many people from 2019, particularly those in the US, would live in the upcoming years based on activity levels and the additional life they could obtain by raising them.
They discovered that men and women would lose 5.8 years of life expectancy if they were as active as the least active quartile of the population. This would reduce the expectancy at birth from approximately 78 to approximately 73 years.
Additionally, life expectancy would increase by 5.3 years to 83.7 years if everyone, especially Americans over 40, were as active as the top quartile.
Walking approximately 3 miles for 49 minutes was the equivalent of total activity levels in the lowest quartile (4.8 kilometers) per hour daily. Total activity levels in the second-, third- and fourth-highest quartiles were equivalent to 78, 105 and 160 minutes, respectively.
The team also looked into the possible advantages for individuals rather than populations, and discovered that the least active people could live an additional 11 years if they engaged in an additional 111 minutes of physical activity each day.
“Physical activity is pretty critical to improve health outcomes (and) improve longevity,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, who wasn’t involved in the study.
The authors admitted that their estimates of life expectancy may have been overestimated because there is some evidence that physical activity adherence has improved since the mid-2000s.
Additionally, the 2003–2006 study’s participants’ activity levels were assessed at a single moment in time, making it impossible to account for changes over the course of their lifetimes.
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However, the precise relationship between movement and longevity has already been proposed by researchers.
Numerous illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and various types of cancer, are linked to physical inactivity. Engaging in physical activity lowers your chance of contracting these illnesses and passing away from them.
Throughout the day, find more opportunities to move. Instead of scrolling through social media while your food is heating up, try doing some squats or walking around your office building. Try to park as far away from stores as you can when you’re running errands.
The World Health Organization recommends that adults engage in 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise or 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week. According to Veerman, every movement matters, so don’t give up if you don’t follow the rules.
According to Freeman, exercising for 23 hours a day does not guarantee eternal life because of the diminishing returns effect discovered by the study. It is possible to have too much activity.
Collective action is also necessary to reduce reliance on automobiles.
