Get your running shoes on - and age more slowly

18/08/2008

 People who run regularly age more slowly, have fewer disabilities, enjoy a longer active life span, and are half as likely as ageing nonrunners to die early deaths - according to a new study from Stanford University School of Medicine.

 

James Fries, MD, an emeritus professor of medicine, began his research in 1984, tracking 538 runners over 50 and comparing them to a similar group of nonrunners. The subjects, now in their 70s and 80s, have answered yearly questionnaires about their ability to perform everyday activities such as walking, dressing and grooming, getting out of a chair and gripping objects. The researchers also used national death records to learn which participants died, and why.

 

Astonishingly, 19 years into the study, 34 percent of the nonrunners 
had died - compared to only 15 percent of the runners. Initially, many scientists thought vigorous exercise would do older folks more harm than good, causing a flood of orthopedic injuries, with older runners permanently hobbled by their exercise habit. But  Fries had a different hypothesis: he thought regular exercise would  extend high-quality, disability-free life.

 

Keeping the body moving, he speculated, wouldn't necessarily extend longevity - but would  compress the period at the end of life when people couldn't carry out  daily tasks on their own. His idea came to be known as "the compression of morbidity theory."

 

At the beginning of the study, the runners ran an average of about four hours a week. After 21 years, their running time declined to an average of 76 minutes per week, but they were still seeing health benefits from running. On average both groups in the study became more disabled after 21 years of aging, but for runners the onset of  disability started some 16 years later. And not only did running  delay disability, but the gap between runners' and nonrunners'  general abilities got bigger with time.

 

Fries said: "By and large, the runners have stayed healthy. We did not expect this - and the health benefits of exercise are greater  than we thought."

 

Fries was also surprised that the gap between runners and nonrunners  continued to widen even as his subjects entered their ninth decade of life.

 

The effect was probably due to runners' greater lean body mass and healthier habits in general, he said. "We don't think this effect can go on forever," Fries added. "We know that death is inevitable and eventually we will have a 100 percent mortality rate in both groups."

 

But so far, the effect of running on delaying death has been more dramatic than the scientists expected. Not surprisingly, running has  slowed cardiovascular deaths, but it has also been associated with fewer early deaths from cancer, neurological disease, infections and other causes.

 

And the dire injury predictions? They fell completely flat. Fries and his colleagues published a companion research paper showing running was not associated with greater rates of osteoarthritis in their elderly runners. And runners also do not require more total knee replacements than non runners.

 

"Running straight ahead without pain is not harmful," said Fries, adding that running seems safer for joints than high-impact sports such as football, or unnatural motions like standing en pointe in ballet.

 

"When we first began, there was skepticism about our ideas. Now, many 
other findings go in the same direction. If you had to pick one thing 
to make people healthier as they age - it would be aerobic exercise." "

 

Happily, Fries, 69, follows his own advice: he's an accomplished 
runner, mountaineer and outdoor adventurer.

 

The new findings appeared in the August 11th issue of the journal 
Archives of Internal Medicine.

 

 

Our image shows veteran runner Terry Woods from Accrington.