Category: Exercise

Women who can do this live longer and have a lower risk of dying from heart disease, cancer, and other causes.

Women who can do high-intensity exercise have a longer life and much lower risk of death from any cause, including cancer and heart disease.

For the study, researchers ran a stress echocardiography test on 4,714 women while they were exercising on a treadmill.

Echocardiography stress tests are a method that shows how well your blood vessels and heart are working.

The study asked subjects to walk or run on a treadmill while increasing the intensity little by little until they felt exhausted.

A rating system was used so for the highest levels of fitness the score was 10 metabolic equivalents (METs).

This is equivalent to going up three flights very fast without a break.

Women who scored 10 METs would have good exercise capacity but those who score below that would have poor exercise capacity.

The results showed that women with poor exercise capacity had four times the risk of dying from heart disease than those with good exercise capacity.

The number of cancer deaths in women with poor exercise capacity was twice as high.

Moreover, the number of deaths from other causes in this group was four times bigger than those with good exercise capacity.

Dr Jesús Peteiro, the study’s first author, said:

“Exercise as much as you can.

Fitness protects against death from any cause.

Good exercise capacity predicted lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other causes.”

Also during the exercise test, the researchers monitored the left ventricular chamber of the heart.

They saw that participants with poor heart function throughout exercise were more likely to die form cardiovascular disease.

Dr Peteiro said:

“Looking at both examinations together, women whose heart works normally during exercise are unlikely to have a cardiovascular event.

But if their exercise capacity is poor, they are still at risk of death from cancer or other causes.

The best situation is to have normal heart performance during exercise and good exercise capacity.”

The study was presented at EuroEcho 2019, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

A lifetime of this habit can slow down biological aging for many years.

Walking pace could directly affect the biological aging process, research finds.

An analysis of data from 405,981 UK adults found a connection between walking pace and a biological age marker called leucocyte telomere length (LTL).

Everyday brisk walking for 10 minutes may seem tiny, but the effect is not, as it has been shown to increase longevity.

Moreover, a lifetime of this habit can slow down biological aging for many years.

Previous research suggests that fast walkers have greater physical fitness, are less likely to develop cardiovascular disease, and have up to 20 years higher life expectancy than slow walkers.

To see whether these claims are true, the current study examined the difference in LTL between slow and fast walkers and found that brisk walking could lead to a biological age 16 years younger.

Telomeres are the caps on the ends of chromosomes (DNA molecules) protecting them from damage.

Telomeres become shorter with each cell division.

When telomeres reach the point that they can’t get any shorter, the cell cannot divide and it dies.

Telomere length is often measured in white blood cells (leucocytes).

Measuring telomere length is an effective method to study its shortening in relation to age-related diseases, cancer and heart disease.

Undoubtedly walking has social, mental, and physical health benefits, but the effect of walking pace on human life expectancy with regards to LTL has not been studied thoroughly before.

Dr Paddy Dempsey, the study’s first author, said:

“Previous research on associations between walking pace, physical activity and telomere length has been limited by inconsistent findings and a lack of high-quality data.

This research uses genetic data to provide stronger evidence for a causal link between faster walking pace and longer telomere length.

Data from wrist-worn wearable activity tracking devices used to measure habitual physical activity also supported a stronger role of habitual activity intensity (e.g. faster walking) in relation to telomere length.

This suggests measures such as a habitually slower walking speed are a simple way of identifying people at greater risk of chronic disease or unhealthy ageing, and that activity intensity may play an important role in optimising interventions.

For example, in addition to increasing overall walking, those who are able could aim to increase the number of steps completed in a given time (e.g. by walking faster to the bus stop).”

The study was published in the journal Communications Biology (Dempsey et al., 2022).

An easy way to boost your immune system against infections.

According to experts, doing daily exercise can help your body’s natural defence system to fight infections.

Past studies show that habitual moderate to vigorous intensity workouts can boost the immune system.

A review suggests that moderate to vigorous intensity exercise on a regular basis helps reduce the chance of respiratory infection, several diseases and some types of cancer.

Seemingly with each session of exercise, immune cells are exchanged between the tissues and the blood, contributing to immune surveillance and so reducing risk of illness.

Immune surveillance is a process through which  foreign substances such as viruses, bacteria, or tumour cells are watched and destroyed.

Everyday physical activity in the short-term strengthens the immune system to fight pathogens, including coronavirus.

Also, in the long-run it lowers infection risk by slowing down the immune system decline that naturally happens with aging.

Dr Turner and Dr Campbell in this review consider whether exercise could have a negative impact on immune function or if athletes are more susceptible to infections than the rest of us.

They find that if athletes get more infections it is because of the amount of travelling and exposure to new pathogens in different countries or at social events.

Other factors that make athletes more prone to  infection are psychological stress, poor sleep and poor diet.

Dr John Campbell, study co-author, said:

“People should not fear that their immune system will be suppressed by exercise placing them at increased risk of Coronavirus.

Provided exercise is carried out according to latest government guidance on social distancing, regular exercise will have a tremendously positive effect on our health and wellbeing, both today and for the future.”

Daily aerobic exercise like cycling, walking, or running or even more vigorous exercise are all useful.

For those with a health issue that may restrict the amount of exercise that can be done then ‘moving more’ is better than doing nothing.

Strength training at home such as Pilates, weight lifting, shoulder presses or bench presses can help movement, flexibility, and maintenance of muscles.

The study was published in the journal Exercise Immunology Review (Simpson et al., 2020).

Any amount of this exercise can improve health and increase longevity.

Any amount of running at whatever speed you run — and as little as once a week — could protect you from early death.

This finding comes from a review of 14 studies involving 232,149 people who were followed for 5.5 to 35 years.

Researchers investigated whether running or jogging can increase lifespan and, if so, will the intensity or duration of the exercise matter?

The answer was that running itself is a remedy as it can prevent the risk of death from any cause, including cancer and heart disease.

The authors of the study wrote:

“Any amount of running, even just once a week, is better than no running, while higher doses of running
may not necessarily be associated with greater mortality benefits.

Increased rates of participation in running, regardless of its dose, would probably lead to substantial improvements in population health and longevity.”

They found that any dose of running lowered the risk of early death from any cause by 27 percent when compared with no running.

The runners also had a 23 percent lower risk of death by cancer and 30 percent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease than those who didn’t run or jog at all.

The World Health Organization reports that 31 percent of adults worldwide were physically inactive in 2008 and a sedentary lifestyle accounted for 3.2 million deaths each year.

The guidelines for physical activity for adults are at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity per week.

However, this study suggests that even the smallest amount of running — for instance, a weekly run of less than 50 minutes at a speed of 6 miles (8 km) per hour — will still lower the risk of death significantly.

Dr Zeljko Pedisic, the study’s first author, said:

“Any running is probably good for your health and you can achieve those benefits by running even just once a week or running 50 minutes a week, but that shouldn’t discourage those who run more than that amount, who maybe enjoy running three times a week or six times a week.”

The study was published in British Journal of Sports Medicine (Pedisic et al., 2019).