Running May Help You Live Longer and Healthier

Run for your life! It is never too late to start running, a new study finds. Running may help you to not only live longer, but also live free of disabilities. The study, performed by Stanford University School of Medicine, studied the benefits of running. The researchers based their study on two groups of people 50 and older, a group of runners and non-runners that were monitored for over two decades. Based on the study, if you aren't running already you may want to start. Running helped to widen the gap between the abilities of those in the running group and the non-running group, researchers found. The initial onset of disabilities, were seen 16 years later in the runners, than seen in the non-runners group. The study's senior author James Fries, MD, was surprised that the gap between runners and non-runners even continued to widen as participants reached their 90's, but felt the results may have been a result of the runners' lean body mass and healthier habits, in comparison to the non-runners.Researchers collected yearly questionnaires from the 538 runners and 423 non-runners that helped to explain their ability to perform daily activities, such as bathing, dressing, and walking. The questionnaire also asked questions in regards to their ability to grip objects and maneuver out of a chair. After nineteen years into the study, when most participants would have been in their 70's, the national death records indicated that only 15 percent of the runners had passed away, but 34 percent of the non-runners had passed away. During the beginning of the study, the runners were averaging around four hours a week running and by the end of the study their time running decreased to only around a quarter of that time. Though their time spent running decreased drastically, researchers still saw benefits from running. The study's senior author James Fries, M.D., stated "The study has a very pro-exercise message. If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise." Exercise seems to be very beneficial in promoting healthy living. Many doctors recommend some form of exercise for all ages, but in the elderly it is recommended to help stay mobile and independent, as well as promote a healthy heart, lower stress, help with weight problems, and it may even help with sleep problems. The study not only determined that exercise decreased disabilities as we grow older, but running also reduced deaths caused from cardiovascular problems. Regular running also decreased early deaths from cancer, heath disease, and even Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases, the study found...HealthNews