Running of any length or speed reduces risk of death

An early morning jogger looks over his shoulder as he runs around the reflecting pool on the National Mall in Washington, Thursday Feb. 21, 2013. A new study says running, no matter how many long or fast, can help lower your risk of early death.(Photo: J. David Ake, AP)

Whether you run 30 minutes a week or two hours a week, your risk of early death will be the same — better than if you don't run. Researchers found that running, no matter the duration or speed, will reduce mortality risk by about 30% compared with non-runners.

Contrary to the 150 minutes of moderate exercise or the 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a study published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that people who run less than hour a week have the same health benefits as people who run more, regardless of sex, age, body mass index, health conditions or smoking status.

"More (running) may not be better in relation to health benefits," said Duck-chul Lee, assistant professor at Iowa State University and lead author of the study.

Runners had a 30% lower risk of death overall and a 45% lower risk of death from heart disease or stroke than non-runners, according to the report. On average, runners lived three years longer than non-runners.
"The study tells us that doing some exercise is clearly better than doing none at all," said Clyde Yancy, a professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a cardiologist with the American Heart Association.

Running consistently can even balance out other mortality risk factors, which include obesity, high blood pressure and smoking, said Carl Lavie, a cardiologist and co-author of the study. The researchers did additional analysis to examine the importance of running and physical fitness compared with other mortality predictors and found that it outweighed even smoking and obesity.

"Fitness largely negates adverse effects of other cardiological risk factors," Lavie said. "Fitness may be the strongest predictor of survival."

The study examined more than 50,000 adults between 18 and 100 over a period of 15 years. The researchers used data from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, where participants completed a questionnaire about their running habits. In the sample, about 24% of participants reported running as part of their leisure-time exercise.
Researchers also found that participants who persistently ran over a period of six years had the most significant health benefits, with a 29% lower risk of overall death and 50% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

The study only examined running as a leisure-time exercise, but Lavie said the physical exercise could be translated to other activities, such as biking or walking. However, running is "more intense" than those activities and would require people to walk two times farther than if they ran, and three to four times farther if they bike.

Lavie advised people who want to start running to start slow with walking, then introducing jogging and running. The perfect amount of exercise would still be 30 to 40 minutes a day, Lavie said, but this study showed that people would still get reduced mortality risk with just five minutes a day.

"(The study gives) comforting information for people whose frequent excuse for not running is they don't have enough time," Lavie said.

SOURCE: USA TODAY