As you reach middle age, scientists say there’s a simple way to live significantly longer, but unfortunately that means getting rid of it.
American adults over 40 could add an additional five years to their lifespan if they exercise as much as the top 25 percent of the population, according to new research.
The research, published as a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicineinvolved creating a predictive model to estimate the benefits of physical activity on life expectancy – and while the results probably won’t surprise anyone, they serve to triple the conventional wisdom that regular exercise is absolutely the key to healthy aging.
It is mainly the degree of the effect that is striking. The findings suggest that [physical activity] provides substantially greater health benefits than previously thought, which is due to the use of more accurate measurement methods,” the authors wrote in the study.
To create the predictive model, the researchers collected activity tracker data from a national health survey for people over 40, recent population data from the Census Bureau, and data on 2017 deaths.
What does exercise look like for the most active 25 percent of Americans over 40? According to the research, this would be equivalent to walking 160 minutes a day at a manageable pace of five kilometers per hour.
If you match that level of physical activity on a daily basis, midlifers, your life expectancy will skyrocket from 78.6 years to 84 years – more than six years more than the current life expectancy in the country.
Meanwhile, if the least active quartile of Americans walked at the same pace for almost two hours a day, their expected time on this earth would increase by eleven years.
It’s worth noting that this was an observational study, meaning cause and effect cannot be determined.
Still, it doesn’t hurt to exercise if you’re able to. And remember: the physical activity you do doesn’t have to involve literally hours of walking. You can accomplish an equivalent amount of exercise by doing shorter, more intense workouts. Start exercising again or dust off your old racing bike: the choice is yours.
That said, there are many barriers that stand in the way of people getting the exercise they want, something the researchers acknowledge. On a society-wide scale, the solution may not necessarily mean people going to the gym, they suggest, but rather to the streets. And to do that we need to change the way our cities are organized.
“Infrastructure measures that encourage active transportation, walkable neighborhoods, and green spaces may be promising approaches to increasing physical activity and resulting healthy life expectancy at the population level,” the authors wrote.
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