A Little Regular Exercize Extends Men's Lives...(perhaps women too)

Source: Yahoo News, Health Day News..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20080124/hl_hsn/alittleregularexerciseextendsmenslives


By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter Wed Jan 23, 11:47 PM ET
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Even a moderate amount of exercise can dramatically prolong a man's life, new research on middle-aged and elderly American veterans reveals.

The government-sponsored analysis -- the largest such study ever -- found that a regimen of brisk walking 30 minutes a day at least four to six days a week was enough to halve the risk of premature death from all causes.
"As you increase your ability to exercise -- increase your fitness -- you are decreasing in a step-wise fashion the risk of death," said study author Peter Kokkinos, director of the exercise testing and research lab in the cardiology department of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
That conclusion applies more or less equally to white and black men, regardless of their prior history of cardiovascular disease. According to Kokkinos, that may be because the veterans in the study all received the same level of care, regardless of income.
This evened the playing field, he said, giving him "great confidence" in the results, which will be published in the Feb. 5 issue of Circulation and were released online Jan. 22.
In the study, Kokkinos and his team reviewed information gathered by the VA from 15,660 black and white male patients treated either in Palo Alto, Calif., or in Washington, D.C.
The men ranged in age from 47 to 71 and had been referred to a VA medical facility for a clinically prescribed treadmill exercise test sometime between 1983 and 2006. All participants were asked to run until fatigued, at which point the researchers recorded the total amount of energy expended and oxygen consumed.
The numbers were then crunched into "metabolic equivalents," or METS. In turn, the researchers graded the fitness of each man according to his MET score, ranging from "low-fit" (below 5 METS) to "very-high fit" (above 10 METS).
By tracking fatalities through June 2007, Kokkinos and his colleagues found that for both black and white men it was their fitness level, rather than their age, blood pressure or body-mass index, that was most strongly linked to their future risk for death.
Every extra point in MET conferred a 14 percent reduction in the risk for death among black men, and a 12 percent reduction among whites. Among all participants, those categorized as "moderately fit" (5 to 7 METS) had about a 20 percent lower risk for death than "low-fit" men. "High-fit" men (7 to 10 METS) had a 50 percent lower risk, while the "very high fit" (10 METS or higher) cut their odds of an early death by 70 percent.
"The point is, it takes relatively little exercise to achieve the benefit we found," noted Kokkinos. "Approximately two to three hours per week of brisk walking per week. That's just 120 to 200 minutes per week. And this can be split up throughout the week, and throughout the day. So it's doable in the real world."
Alice H. Lichtenstein, director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Lab at Tufts University's USDA Human Nutrition Research Center in Boston, agreed.
"What this finding demonstrates is that levels of physical activity that should be achievable by anyone can have a real benefit with respect to risk reduction," she said.
"What's really important to understand is that you don't need special clothes, special memberships, special equipment," added Lichtenstein, former chairwoman of the American Heart Association's nutrition committee. "It's something everyone can engage in. And although we don't know from this research that this applies to women as well, there's no reason to suspect that it wouldn't."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20080124/hl_hsn/alittleregularexerciseextendsmenslives

In the first sentence..,,,and second paragraph.........15,660 black and white male patients.............
The largest study ever attempted on this supject..(for men)

From what I read elsewhere, there is a companion study with women nurses.......80,000 nurses being followed over a multiple year period that concludes the same thing.........moderate exercise increases life...yes even .... moderate


Why?....my guess is simple..that we as animals need to exercise the body...at least some. Our bodies need some movement to stay healthy..We still can lay around and do nothing for 23 and 1/4 hours a day, but if we can get 45 minutes of exercise a day....(much more than the study)..we will optimize our health...

and get some exercise! Of course it will extend your life, for both men and women! This knowledge should have been learn in grade school.

And this is it ...But, more important.. We can still sit on our lazy asses for 23 and one half hours a day.

If we exercise for one half hour, vigorously, then we can still maintain a very good chance to live longer. This proof should make it easy to see that this is necessary. proof Let's say we can find time to walk reasonably fast for 30 minutes, or 15 and 15..

The rest of the day we can sit at work and do nothing, or do something, or half the time at work we can log on to DU and look like we are doing something..so ..that half hour can improve our bodies. Sure, we need proof. Why not?

WTF!!!! It's NOT THAT HARD!!!

it's easyfor the * to advocate exercise,all he does is take vacation days, but some men (and women) actually work long hours, then have to commute, and shop for fuel/food on the top of it, and then you are also recommended to sleep 8 hours a day

bill clinton was well known for sleeping only 5 hours a day, in absence of other risk factors, at his young age, to have bypass surgery, i just read that they're pretty sure it's because of the sleep disruption and how it changes your body chemistry -- shift workers, people who work two jobs etc., people who don't sleep as long are known to have a highly elevated risk of heart disease

exercise is fine but rest is essential too

I work 12 hour shifts AT NIGHT and still find time to exercise every day - ENOUGH with the excuses

:toast:

I had congestive heart failure late in August last year. Very nearly died. I had pretty much stopped all exercise and gained lots of weight.

my cardio guys were planning on gastric by pass surgery, put me on massive meds.

My wife and I worked up a low salt/low fat menu. My first week out I managed to walk half a block to the corner of my street. Second week I could do 1/4 mile. I've been regularly increasing my walks and changing my diet. so far I've lost 70 lbs, I regained 10 over the holidays. my goal is to lose a total of 150 lbs by my birthday in June. My cardiologist is "amazed" I managed to lose 60 lbs at our last appointment. He said, "no one ever does that." He's also impressed that all my tests show my heart rate is normal and I appear to have reversed the conditions which caused the heart failure.

Last weekend I walked 3 miles easily. Yesterday, due to the rain here in the Bay Area I was only able to walk 2& 1/2 miles. My daily goal is a minimum of 1/2 mile or a half an hour of moderately strenuous exercise. By spring I'll be back on my bike and swimming a couple of times a week at a local pool.

now keep it up - I try to tell people, don't look as exercise as a means to lose weight but as a lifestyle. Don't berate yourself for the holiday gain - learn from it and use your knowledge to decrease or avoid wait gain during the next holiday!

There's other small things you can do too - for example, never look for a "good parking spot" - park in a way that doesn't leave you isolated but gives you a bit of a walk. At work don't ever call someone you can just walk over to talk to. That kind of stuff!!!