Add 5 Years to Your Life: Exercise
How would you like to add 5 years to your life and in the process add life to your years? It is possible to add 5 years to your life pretty easily. Simply exercise according to a study in The British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The study looked at how much having a low physical activity level reduces life expectancy, and conversely, how much life expectancy could be improved by increasing physical activity. To add that 5 years to your life all you have to do is raise your exercise level to that of the top 25% of your peers. And if you are one those who already is in the lowest level of physical increasing your activity level to nudge in that top 25%, can add up to 11 years to your life. No drug is going to accomplish that.
How Much Exercise is Needed?
How much exercise is needed to add 5 years to your life? It may or may not be as much as you think depending on your perspective. First, the study looked at the US population over age 40. The study then calculated the physical activity for those in the top 25% and determined that activity level to be 2 hours and 40 minutes of normal paced walking of 3 miles per hour daily. This takes into account all the walking you do throughout the day, not just during a structured exercise program.
We have previously discussed the harms of being inactive by sitting in The Hazards of Sitting: Move to Avoid Them. How Many Daily Steps Needed to Improve Health?The important point as the title of the article suggests, is not only to avoid sitting, but avoid sitting does not simply mean standing, it means moving around. We also discussed how many steps a day are needed to improve health in How Many Daily Steps Needed to Improve Health? In that post we discovered that
- Adults over 60 saw a 42% risk reduction in death if they walked 6,000 to 10,000 steps a day.
- Younger adults saw a 49% risk reduction if they walked between 7,000 and 13,000 steps a day.
- Every increase of steps by 1,000 steps a day reduces risk of dying from any cause by 15%.
Modern medicine is very misguided when it comes to disease prevention and longevity with its emphasis on medications. Medications do not provide the same overall benefit as exercise. When you exercise and improve your fitness, you will lower your blood pressure, better control you glucose and cholesterol levels, better control your weight, reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, and strokes, and more. No drug will give you that kind of universal benefit.
Kokkinos in his study on the benefits of fitness found this: Over a ten-year period being in the lowest 20% of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) increases your risk of death 400%. Having hypertension increases your risk only 14%, cardiovascular disease increases your risk 28%, cancer increases it 33%, diabetes increases it 34% and smoking increases it 40%. Simply moving your fitness levels from the bottom quintile of fitness to the next lower quintile will reduce your 10 year mortality from 400% to 288%.
The risk factors we do address in modern medicine only increase mortality minimally compared to being in poor fitness which we rarely address. Not only are you adding years to your life when you exercise and increase your activity but you are adding life to your years. Regular exercise improves your energy and energy is a major key to health and enjoying life.
Add 5 years to your life. Live your life. Move, move, and move. Or as one of my mentors, Dr. Hughston, was know for saying, “Keep on keeping on.”
References:
Veerman, Lennert, et al: Physical Activity and Life Expectancy: a Life-Table Analysis. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2024/10/07/bjsports-2024-108125.
Kokkinos, Peter; Faselis, Charles; Samuel, Immanuel Babu Henery; et al: Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Mortality Risk Across the Spectra of Age, Race, and Sex. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Volume 80, Issue 6, August 9, 2022.
