A new study shows that older people who enjoy activities like walking, jogging, swimming, or playing tennis once a week could live longer.
It might even help them avoid dying from heart disease or cancer.
This research was led by a team at the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
The authors of the study encourage older adults to do fun activities regularly. They say many activities can help reduce the risk of death. The details of this study were published on August 24 in JAMA Network Open.
The Study: Exercise and Age
In the study, the researchers collected data from 272,550 adults. They were between 59 and 82 years old.
These people had filled out surveys about the fun activities they did in their free time. This was part of a bigger study called the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.
The team wanted to see if doing a good amount of seven different activities could lower the risk of death. The activities were running, cycling, swimming, aerobic exercise, racquet sports, golf, and walking for exercise.
Findings: Move More, Live Longer
The results of the study showed that doing the right amount of physical activity each week could lower the risk of death by 13%. This was true no matter which activities people chose. But some activities stood out.
Playing racquet sports could lower the risk by 16%, and running by 15%. Even so, all activities were linked with lower death risks.
The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (second edition) suggest adults should do 2.5 to 5 hours of medium-intensity aerobic exercise, or 1.25 to 2.5 hours of high-intensity aerobic exercise, each week.
The study found that people who did even more than these guidelines had a lower risk of death. But there’s a limit. Doing more exercise showed smaller benefits.
Even people who did less than the suggested amount of activity still had a 5% lower risk of death compared to those who didn’t do any of these activities.
Impact on Heart Disease and Cancer
The study also found that these activities could lower the risk of dying from heart disease and cancer. Playing racquet sports showed the highest reduction in the risk of death from heart diseases (27% reduction).
Running had the biggest impact on reducing the risk of death from cancer (19% reduction). So, older adults might want to consider these activities to help them live longer, healthier lives.
If you care about health, please read studies that whole grain foods could help increase longevity, and vitamin D supplements strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about natural coconut sugar that could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness, and whey and soy protein may reduce inflammation in older people.
The study was published in JAMA Network Open. Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
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