Stay active to live longer
Expending Energy Through Any Activity May Influence Survival in Older Adults
Want to live longer? You don’t have to join a gym or buy treadmill, but you do need to stay active.
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms a little exercise secret we’ve examined in many e-Alerts and HSI Members Alerts: Strenuous exercise is not a prerequisite of good health. Just get moving and keep moving.
Researchers at the National Institute of Aging recruited about 300 “high-functioning” subjects over the age of 70. Resting metabolic rate and carbon dioxide elimination were measured over the course of two weeks and again five years later.
After adjusting for various health risk factors, results showed that subjects who had the highest energy expenditure were far less likely to die during the study period when compared to subjects with the lowest energy expenditure.
In their conclusion, the authors wrote: “Simply expending energy through any activity may influence survival in older adults.”
Sources:
“Daily Activity Energy Expenditure and Mortality Among Older Adults” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 296, No. 2, 7/12/06, jama.ama-assn.org
