Captain Ahab’s BodyBlog

As I have long believed and studies are now showing that as reported in a recent newspaper article from the Associated Press “Higher fitness levels lower death rates in men.”
According to the article the more fit you are, the longer you are likely to live, according to the study on U.S. veterans followed for an average of 8 years by the Veterans Affairs.
They found that “highly fit” men in the study had half the risk of death as those that were less fit. Being “very highly fit” cut the risk even more - by 70 per cent.
The research builds on what is already known about the benefits of exercise and fills in some gaps by addressing the effects of fitness in African Americans.
“A little bit of exercise goes a long way,” says Peter Kokkinos, lead author of the study. “Thirty minutes a day, five days a week of brisk walking is likely to reduce the risk of mortality by 50 per cent_____if not more.”
To determine the fitness level of the veterans a treadmill test was used and the men – who had an average age of 60 – were put into four categories ranging from “low fit” to “very highly fit.”
With over 15,600 participants, the researchers said the study was the largest to look at the link between fitness and mortality. The study also sets itself apart by looking at how exercise affects African Americans, whose death rates are higher than whites. About 43 per cent of the veterans in the study were African Americans.
 
 

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.