Running is worth it and is the most time efficient way of getting your heart health improving. Never done it? …Then start slow and gentle.
Pop down to the local school oval – gently jog the straights and then walk the curves, starting with just a few laps. Gradually add an extra lap each week as you feel you can, and then try to jog the whole lap non-stop after a couple of weeks.
Contact us for more tailored advice for your particular health pattern.
Those who enjoy a regular run around the block are doing more for their health than simply keeping fit, with with researchers finding even short irregular stints of jogging prolong life.
Writing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, they say that compared with non-runners, runners have a 30% lower risk of death from all causes and a 45% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, they found runners on average live three years longer than their non-running counterparts after adjustment for other mortality predictors.
In fact, no matter how long, far, frequently or fast participants reported running, the benefits were the same. Similarly, sex, age, BMI, health condition, smoking status or alcohol use did not affect positive outcomes.
The researchers from Iowa State University studied over 55,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 100 over a 15-year period. In that period, 3,413 participants died, including 1,217 whose deaths were related to CVD. Twenty-four per cent reported running regularly to keep fit.
“Running may be a better exercise option than more moderate intensity exercises for healthy but sedentary people since it produces similar, if not greater, mortality benefits in five to 10 minutes compared to the 15 to 20 minutes per day of moderate intensity activity that many find too time consuming,” says lead author, Dr Duckchul Lee.
To reduce mortality risk at a population, the authors conclude that promoting running is as important as preventing smoking, obesity or hypertension.
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