Healthy living
Exercise and fitness
In good running order
Want to stay healthy into old age? Get running, say scientists
Regular running keeps you agile in later life and will help you live longer, says new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. According to a 21-year study by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, older runners suffer fewer disabilities, stay active for longer and halve their risk of an early death.
‘If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise,’ said Dr James Fries, an emeritus professor of medicine at the medical school and the study’s senior author.
In 1984, Dr Fries and his fellow researchers began tracking 538 runners aged 50 and older and followed 284 of them for more than 20 years to determine whether vigorous exercise was healthy or harmful for older people. The study began at a time when some medical experts feared the trend for jogging could cause long-term damage to the joints, risking irreversible orthopaedic injuries.
The research team compared the runners, recruited from a Californian running club, to a similar group of healthy non-runners. Every year, both groups were asked to fill in questionnaires about their mobility and how well they could complete everyday activities such as walking, dressing, getting out of a chair and gripping objects.
Although both groups in the study inevitably became more disabled by the end of the study, the researchers found the onset of disability was considerably delayed for the runners - initial signs of disability started around 16 years later than the non-runners.
At the beginning of the study, the runners were averaging about four hours of running per week. After 21 years, when participants were in their 70s and 80s, their running time declined to an average of 76 minutes per week, yet the gap between the two groups’ abilities got wider as they got older.
The gap has continued to widen, even as the participants enter their 90s – a result researchers have put down to their leaner body mass and typically healthier lifestyles overall.
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One of the most dramatic findings has been the impact of running on death rates. While researchers predicted that the running group would have fewer deaths from heart disease and other cardiovascular problems, the group also recorded fewer deaths overall from cancer, infections and other causes. By 2003, 19 years in to the study, 34 per cent of the non-runners had died, compared to only 15 per cent of the runners.
Furthermore, running did not lead to greater incidence of osteoarthritis or knee-related injuries, as some in the medical profession had predicted.
The researchers conclude that regular, vigorous exercise is linked to increased survival rates and could help extend the number of healthy, disability-free years enjoyed in later life.
Information on this site is for interest only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should consult your own doctor about any specific health concerns.
