Exciting study realized by the Victoria University of Melbourne, Australia
Running may help you live longer, but more isn’t necessarily better
The study, published 5 November 2019 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, suggests running can significantly improve your health and reduce the risk of death at a given point in time.
And you don’t have to run fast or far to reap the benefits!
14 individual studies on the association between running or jogging and the risk of death from all causes, heart disease and cancer have been undertaken.
The sample included more than 230,000 participants, 10% of whom were runners. The studies tracked participants’ health for between 5.5 and 35 years. During this time, 25,951 of the participants died.
The researchers found runners had a 27% lower risk of dying during the study period from any cause compared with non-runners.
Specifically, running was associated with a 30% lower risk of death from heart disease and a 23% lower risk of death from cancer.
More isn’t necessarily better
Moreover, running just once a week, or for 50 minutes a week, reduces the risk of death at a given point in time. The benefits don’t seem to increase or decrease with higher amounts of running.
Nor do the benefits necessarily increase by running at high speeds. We found similar benefits for running at any speed between 8 and 13 km/h. It might be that running at your own “most comfortable pace” is the best for your health.
But keep in mind there are risks as well.
Tips for beginners
Start slow and gradually increase the pace, duration and weekly frequency. Set your aim at 50 minutes a week or more, and run at a comfortable speed. Be persistent, but don’t let yourself run out of steam.
The benefits will be similar, regardless of whether you do it in one go or in multiple sessions spread across the week.
If you don’t like running alone, consider joining a running group or an organised event such as parkrun. Running in a group can increase your motivation and provide a fun social experience.
It can be hard to start running, but it shouldn’t be too hard. If you don’t like running, don’t force it; there are more than 800 other interesting sports to choose from. The benefits of many other sports (such as swimming, tennis, cycling and aerobics) are comparable to the ones we found for running.
For the full article https://theconversation.com/running-may-help-you-live-longer-but-more-isnt-necessarily-better-120578