Running Hard

Wednesday, February 11th, 2015

Hard-core endurance training is as deadly as sitting on the couch:

Researchers looked at 5,048 healthy participants in the Copenhagen City Heart Study and questioned them about their activity.

They identified and tracked 1,098 healthy joggers and 413 healthy but sedentary non-joggers for 12 years.

Jogging from 1 to 2.4 hours per week was associated with the lowest mortality and the optimal frequency of jogging was no more than three times per week.

Overall, significantly lower mortality rates were found in those with a slow or moderate jogging pace, while the fast-paced joggers had almost the same mortality risk as the sedentary non-joggers.

Researchers registered 28 deaths among joggers and 128 among sedentary non-joggers. In general, the joggers were younger, had lower blood pressure and body mass index, and had a lower prevalence of smoking and diabetes.

Maureen Talbot, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study shows that you don’t have to run marathons to keep your heart healthy.

“Light and moderate jogging was found to be more beneficial than being inactive or undertaking strenuous jogging, possibly adding years to your life.

Comments

  1. R. says:

    The sample in the study is way too small. 17 deaths overall, 40 people in the ‘strenuous’ category.

    I do not understand why the study authors did not try instead to look at lifespan of marathon runners and such people.

    I think it’s beyond doubt that there’s a level of exertion that just wears down the organism, but this study was not designed well enough to find it..

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