Exercise may prolong your life

Despite of the ups and downs of life, most of us enjoy our life.  I don't know anybody, in the right mind, who wants to die right away.   Some patients have ask if there is anything we could eat or do to increase our life expectancy.   Surely you have seen my previous blogs about maintaining ideal body weight, eat less meat, salt, sugar, fat (I know these are taste goods…).   One more aspect of what we could do to improve our chance of long healthy living is EXERCISE.

One study by Leitzmann involving 252,925 men and women aged 50-71 years showed that vigorous exercise (at least 20 minutes three times a week) combined with regular exercise (at least 30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week) was associated with a 50 percent decreased death rate.  It appears to be dose dependent.  That means, the more you exercise the more you will benefit.

So, I don’t have a fountain of youth or pills to prolong your life.  But exercise seems to be a strong predictor of healthy living.  Of course, you need to talk to your doctor first if you are fit for exercise.  Yes, some exercises are boring.  Consider make it like a game that is fun to exercise.  I often play basket ball with my neighbor’s children.  These 8-10 years old easily beat me in cardiac performance but I have fun with them.   When they beat me too often, then I would do my “vigorous” gardening: pulling out lots of weeds or cutting up dead trees…

Reference:

Leitzmann MF, et al. Physical activity recommendations and decreased risk of mortality. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(22):2453.