Midlife fitness key to healthier ageing
Being physically fit during your 30s, 40s, and 50s not
only helps extend lifespan, but it also increases the chances of ageing
healthily, free from chronic illness, say researchers.
For decades, research has shown that higher
cardiorespiratory fitness levels lessen the risk of death, but it previously
had been unknown just how much fitness might affect the burden of chronic
disease in the most senior years - a concept known as morbidity compression.
"We've determined that being fit is not just
delaying the inevitable, but it is actually lowering the onset of chronic
disease in the final years of life," said Dr. Jarett Berry, assistant
professor of internal medicine and senior author of the study.
Investigators at UT Southwestern Medical Center and The
Cooper Institute examined the patient data of 18,670 participants in the Cooper
Center Longitudinal Study, research that contains more than 250,000 medical
records maintained over a 40-year span.
These data were linked with the patients' Medicare claims
filed later in life from ages 70 to 85. Analyses during the latest study showed
that when patients increased fitness levels by 20 percent in their midlife
years, they decreased their chances of developing chronic diseases - congestive
heart failure, Alzheimer's disease, and colon cancer - decades later by 20 per
cent.
"What sets this study apart is that it focuses on
the relationship between midlife fitness and quality of life in later years.
Fitter individuals aged well with fewer chronic illnesses to impact their
quality of life," said Dr. Benjamin Willis of The Cooper Institute, first
author on the study.
This positive effect continued until the end of life,
with more-fit individuals living their final five years of life with fewer
chronic diseases. The effects were the same in both men and women.
These data suggest that aerobic activities such as
walking, jogging, or running translates not only into more years of life but
also into higher quality years, compressing the burden of chronic illness into
a shorter amount of time at the end of life, Dr. Berry said.
According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood
Institute (NHLBI), adults should get at least 2 and half hours of moderate to intense
aerobic activity each week to ensure major heart and overall health benefits.
The study results have been made available online in the
Archives of Internal Medicine.
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