Can jogging help you live longer? Perhaps, but new study has shortcomings
Some studies I just want to believe — like the one claiming that chocolate helps you lose weight. Being an avid jogger, I smiled broadly when I read about a new study making headlines that found my running habit will add 5.6 years to my life. If I were a man, my life expectancy would increase by 6.2 years.
Sounded good to me, until I looked a little further at the study details. First of all, the research hasn’t been published, which means it hasn’t undergone rigorous peer review to ensure that its statistical calculations are valid. The findings by Danish researchers are set to be presented on Saturday at the annual meeting of the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation.
Researchers analyzed mortality data from 1,116 male joggers and 762 female joggers participating in the ongoing Copenhagen City Heart Study, which has 20,000 total participants, and found that the risk of death over the 35-year time frame was reduced by 44 percent for the joggers compared with those in the study who didn’t run.
What’s odd, though, is that the researchers also found a U-shaped curve for death risk, meaning that those who jogged longer and at a more strenous pace had a higher risk of dying than those who jogged less. They concluded that jogging for one hour to two and a half hours per week — over two to three sessions — at a slow or average pace was optimal.
That’s about what I do, and it’s also what my Get Moving blogger colleague Elizabeth Comeau is doing to get ready for a 5K race she’s running this weekend, so I’d love to believe those findings, but I’m skeptical.
I should note that the study, like all studies that just observe participants for their habits, doesn’t prove that jogging helps you live longer — nor that those who run long and hard have shorter lifespans.
Yet, you wouldn’t know that based on the statement made by study leader Dr. Peter Schnohr, chief cardiologist of the Copenhagen heart study. “The relationship appears much like alcohol intakes. Mortality is lower in people reporting moderate jogging, than in non-joggers or those undertaking extreme levels of exercise,’’ said Schnohr.
So, marathon runners are like alcoholics? I find that difficult to believe, and there’s no scientific basis to explain why running every day for an hour would be bad for the body. I’m also frustrated that the study didn’t tease out the mortality benefits of other types of exercise like swimming, biking, or, heck, Zumba.
Bottom line: This study finding is far from certain, but it’s useful if people use it as a motivation to go out for a jog. I don’t think, however, that daily runners with no health issues should be scared by the finding into cutting back.
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