Exercise increases life span, study says

Researchers suggest being active can add more than three years to one's life.
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON -- Sorry, couch potatoes -- the verdict is in: People who exercise regularly really do live longer.
In fact, people who get a good workout almost daily can add nearly four years to their life spans, according to the first study to quantify the impact of physical activity this way.
The researchers looked at records of more than 5,000 middle aged and elderly Americans and found that those who had moderate to high levels of activity lived 1.3 to 3.7 years longer than those who got little exercise, largely because they put off developing heart disease -- the nation's leading killer. Men and women benefited about equally.
"This shows that physical activity really does make a difference -- not only for how long you live but for how long you live a healthy life," said Oscar Franco of the Erasmus M.C. University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who led the study published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Being more physically active can give you more time."
Previous studies have found that being physically active has a host of health benefits. It reduces the risk of being overweight and of developing many illnesses, improves overall quality of life and lowers the mortality rate. But the new study is the first to directly calculate the effect on how long people live.
Data analysis
Franco and his colleagues analyzed data from the Framingham Heart Study, a well-known research project that has followed 5,209 residents of one Massachusetts town for more than 40 years, collecting detailed information about their lifestyles and health.
The researchers calculated the effects of low, moderate or high levels of physical activity on life span, accounting for the possible effects of factors such as age, sex, education, whether they smoked or had serious health problems.
People who engaged in moderate activity -- the equivalent of walking for 30 minutes a day for five days a week -- lived about 1.3 to 1.5 years longer than those who were less active. Those who took on more intense exercise -- the equivalent of running half an hour a day for five days every week -- extended their lives by about 3.5 to 3.7 years, the researchers found.
The findings show that even for people who are already middle-aged, exercising more can add years to their lives, Franco said.
In addition, recent studies have also found that exercise has payoffs for the mind, too.