Running for just 75 minutes a week can help you increase longevity by 12 years.
International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health.
The study looked specifically at telomeres, the structures at the end of chromosomes. As a general rule, the longer and more numerous telomeres are, the better your cellular health. As we age, our telomere number and length naturally decrease – but exercise seems to go some way in slowing the decline.
This latest study found that 75 minutes of jogging/running per week versus not running at all resulted in ‘a biological age difference of approximately 12 years in favour of runners’. The study authors looked at more than 4,400 subjects, comparing those who ran at least 75 minutes a week with those who ran less than 10 minutes a week.
When it comes to exercise, there’s also another metric to consider other than lifespan: ‘healthspan’. This is a term to describe how long someone lives with chronic disease that disables them, and myriad studies have attested to exercise’s ability to reduce the chances of everything from Alzheimer’s to cancer.
Lifespan is the number of years someone lives from birth until death, while healthspan is the number of years someone is healthy without chronic and debilitating disease.
In short, keep running regularly and you can increase both the quantity and quality of your life.
Read the article in Runner’s World >
Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash
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