Want to Add 5 Years to Your Life? Exercise 3 Hours a Week in Old Age
Equating benefits of exercising to those of smoking cessation, a new study claims that three hours of exercise can help older adults live longer.
The findings of the study by Oslo University Hospital shows a five-year longer average lifespan for people who exercise three hours compared to the sedentary. The study also found that physical activity of less than an hour did not make much difference for an individual's health.
"Even at the age of 73 years, physical activity (PA) is associated highly with mortality between groups of sedentary and active persons. Allowing for competing risk did not weaken these associations markedly. Public health strategies in elderly men should include efforts to increase PA in line with efforts to reduce smoking behaviour," researchers wrote in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The study involved 5,700 men who participated in the 12-year study.
"Thirty minutes of PA per 6 days a week was associated with about 40% mortality risk reduction. There was a 5 years increased lifetime when comparing sedentary and moderate to vigorous physically active men," researchers wrote.
Additionally, BBC also reported findings from a British Heart Foundation study which showed that 69 percent adults in Portugal did not indulge in regular moderate exercise and was hence termed laziest in Europe. Netherlands outperformed other countries as only 14 percent of the adults avoided exercise.
