Running Adds 16 Years to Active Life

Study shows that regular jogs push back old-age disabilities

Break out the running shoes, the fountain of youth can be found in a pair of EVA-cushioned New Balance’s. At least that’s what the Stanford University School of Medicine discovered after monitoring over 500 middle-aged runners. The study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine documents how the docs started tracking runner and non-runners over age 50 in 1984 and compared their health and death stats once a year for the next 20+ years. Here’s the lowdown on their findings:

-          After almost 20 years, 34 percent of the nonrunners had died, compared to 15 percent of runners.

-          The runners’ initial bouts of disabilities connected with aging (osteoarthritis, cardiovascular issues, and other issues) kicked in 16 years later than nonrunners.

-          Concerns about older age runners developing greater rates of osteoarthritis from all that pounding are unfounded—runners don’t need more knee replacements than nonrunners.

-          Running into the 80’s still produces positive and dramatic health benefits compared to nonrunners.

This is so cool.

If you’ve been following this blog, you might have picked up on the fact that I’m a little obsessed with aging. I’m sure this has to do with the fact that I’m a father, next year I turn 40, and neither one of my parents lived past 60. Truth be told, after watching my father painfully pass away when I was 19, I was scared into getting fit and becoming an active cyclist, rower, and runner. I’ve since found that taking care of my health and sticking to a regular exercise regimen have allowed me to do some really spectacular things and left me full of energy. Even so, in the back of my mind is a near constant sense of anxiety over dying before my kids graduate from high school, what I call, “The Fear.”

Stumbling across news like this Stanford study brings me a profound sense of relief that I’m doing the right thing. Who knows if I’ll be able to escape my genes, but I gonna fight ‘em as long and as hard as I can. Hopefully this news will inspire some of you out there to do the same.

Source: Science Daily