Live longer, run!

It’s no secret to dailymilers that running has its health benefits. We’ve heard pretty much all of them from weight loss, and desease prevention, to perfecting memory and brain health. Tack another one onto the list, running also helps us live longer.

According to a study from the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation, running helps us live almost 6 1/2 years longer than non runners. It could be the lifestyle change that comes naturally when you make lacing up a part of your daily routine, but I’ll take it! Even though he uses the “j-word (jogging),” Dr. Peter Schnohr, chief cardiologist from the Copenhagen City Heart Study, remarks that “jogging was associated with a 44% reduction in the relative risk of death over 35 years compared with deaths among non-joggers.” If you follow the logic, that reduction in death risk leads to an increase in life, by 6.2 years for men and 5.6 years for women. The good news is that you don’t have to be an olympian to reap the benefits. Positive results were shown for people who ran “between 1 and 2.5 hours per week divided into two or three sessions at a self-described slow to average pace.”

So the next time you need motivation to get out for your daily miles, think about your golden years, it’s guaranteed that you wont regret it.

Sources:
Joggers Live Longer, Possibly Happier, Lives: http://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/europrevent/32513
European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation — Schnohr P “Jogging — healthy or hazard symposium: Assessing prognosis: a glimpse of the future” EuroPRevent 2012.