Researchers found that of the “least-fit” versus the “slightly more fit” in a recent study of nearly 4,400 healthy Americans, roughly 20 percent with the lowest physical fitness levels doubled the risk of dying over the next nine years as the 20 percent with the next-lowest fitness levels. (To put it another way, those 20 percent who were almost at the lowest fitness levels.) This is the proverbial “bad news/good news” outcome. It is obviously bad news if you are a confirmed couch potato. However, it is undoubtedly good news for those who haven’t completely embraced a sedentary lifestyle but are not, by definition, very active. Apparently, those men and women who remain even moderately fit as they grow older may have greater longevity than those who are entirely out-of-shape, the study suggests.

Between 1986 and 2006, researchers evaluated the fitness levels of 4,384 middle-aged and senior men and women during exercise treatmill tests. The researchers then pursued their progress for close to nine years. The study took into consideration factors like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. This, in and of itself, underscores the significants of being physically fit. In an email to Reuters Health, Dr. Sandra Mandic, of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and lead researcher of the study stated: “Our findings suggest that a sedentary lifestyle, rather than differences in cardiovascular risk factors or age, may explain the two-fold higher mortality rates in the least-fit versus slightly more fit individuals.”

Nearly two-thirds of the participants at the least-fit level failed to get at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, five or more days a week, which was the minimum recommended amount of exercise. “These results emphasize the importance of improving and maintaining high fitness levels by engaging in regular physical activity,” Mandic said, “particularly in poorly-fit individuals.”

Separating the participants into five groups based on fitness levels, the researchers determined that 25 percent of the least-fit individuals had died during the study period, as opposed to 13 percent of those who were slightly more in shape. Only 6 percent of the most-fit group (i.e., the ones who “hit a grand slam,” so to speak) had died during the follow-up period.

The five fitness-level groups showed little variance, overall, in their reported exercise habits during most of their adult lives, but conspicuously, they contrasted in activity levels only in recent years. “Since it is recent physical activity that offers protection,” Mandic said, “it is important to maintain regular physical activity throughout life.”

Since fitness is overtly connected to longevity (and, in this case, irrespective of weight and health issues like high blood pressure and high cholesterol), And, perhaps it goes without saying, imagine the health benefits we could all obtain if we sought to achieve the higher levels of fitness.

SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, August 2009.

Technorati Tags: exercise, longevity, middle age, physical fitness

However, before you decide to add another cup of coffee to your daily intake, let me warn you that also on the website, under “Related Stories,” were a couple of articles about studies that demonstrated the not-so-healthy effects of caffeine, “Morning Jolt of Caffeine May Mask Serious Sleep Problems,” and “Coffee Consumption Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Attack For Persons With Certain Gene Variation.”

Nearly any point of view, it seems to me, especially when it has to do with age-related health issues, can be confirmed, or at least supported, by other related studies. The “good/bad” studies related to caffeine certainly aren’t, by any means, the only ones. Nonetheless, it did get me to considering about the reasonableness that there will not ever be just “one thing” that will irrefutably assist we, humans, in living longer, healthier lives. Humans are dynamic, biological creatures. We are free to participate in life. We’re not confined to a cage! And, moreover, though Alzheimer’s disease may be on the rise, obviously no one has been “singled out to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease,” so caffeine isn’t entirely the “one thing” that is going to prevent or reverse it.

Our body is an elegant, involved system that is based on homeostasis (balance). Consequently good health is cultivated by a healthy, balanced approach to living, instead of our jumping on the bandwagon of the latest health study and “doing” or “overdoing” one specific thing under the illusion that it will reverse all of the other excessive and harmful things we do to our bodies.

As a chiropractor, I believe that every moment of the day we have an opportunity to choose healthfully for our body, decisions that will help us to live longer, healthier lives. We know what truly “feels” life enriching and what doesn’t when it comes to what is good for us. So, the if you reach for that extra cup of coffee or that second glass of red wine, I hope that you’ll think about this. There is no “one thing” that will do “everything” for your age-related health issues.

Technorati Tags: age-related health issues, caffeine, chiropractor, health, longevity, red wine