Relationships | 08/12/2008 10:00 am

Running Can Slow the Aging Process

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Regular running can slow the aging process, according to a study conducted over two decades by Stanford University School of Medicine and published on Monday. Researchers tracked more than 500 older runners for more than 20 years. What they found was that elderly joggers have fewer disabilities, remained fit for longer than non-runners and are half as likely to die early.

Lead researcher James Fries, MD, and his team began in 1984 tracking 538 runners over age 50, comparing them to a similar group of non-runners. The subjects, now in their 70s and 80s, have answered yearly questionnaires about their ability to perform everyday activities such as walking, dressing and grooming, getting out of a chair and gripping objects. The researchers used national death records to learn which participants died and why. Nineteen years into the study, 34 percent of the non-runners had died, compared to only 15 percent of the runners.

The regular joggers were also less likely to succumb to a range of age-related illnesses, including heart disease, cancer and neurological disorders.

At the beginning of the study, the runners ran an average of about four hours a week. After 21 years, their running time declined to an average of 76 minutes per week. All participants became more disabled after 21 years, but for runners the onset of disability started later.

"The study has a very pro-exercise message," said Dr. Fries, an emeritus professor of medicine at the medical school. "If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise."

The new findings are published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Click here to read more about this study.

Read more about: Aging, exercise, Health, News, Science

11 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Right! until you blow your knee out!

By Frank Peterson on 08/12/2008 9:44 am

Doesn’t mention the ones who ran a mile a day. Now they don’t know where they are.

By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 08/12/2008 11:12 am

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I ran six miles a day for years until an accident and I miss it, and do believe if you can avoid knee injuries that moderate running is age-proofing. Now doing other things. A combo of weights and speed walking.

By No Way-No How -No McCain on 08/12/2008 11:37 am

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I ran 6 miles a day for years as well. Why is it the magical 6 miles. I have heard many people say that. I had back problems from getting hit by a car as a child, and it helped. Having babies slowed me down, and more back problems. Now I walk it, and fast. On a back regimen program now, so hope to get back to jogging. My heart works better because of the exercise. I feel better and it is a great way to set the mood for the day. Walk in a beautiful area with someone you can laugh with. Don’t use it as a time of complaining. If we have a big complaint that day about husbands, work etc. We each get 10 minutes, and then drop it. Miraculously enough, the problem just seems like nothing then. Manageable. So my walking, hoping to run again someday, makes me feel better. Even the days I don’t want to do it, I never regret it.

By Frannie Em on 08/12/2008 2:13 pm

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Could someone tell me? If running slows aging - if I ran everyday, how long would it be before I started being younger by the day?

By Rainbow Power on 08/12/2008 12:33 pm

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Well, running’s out for me because of all the years gardening on a hill. Knees, you know. But, a program of walking, weights and cardio will keep us younger as well as stave the cursed osteoporosis. By the way, wow, this is a good subject we should have more discussions on.

By Diana T on 08/12/2008 2:18 pm

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Yeppers—brisk walking’s good for a person as are weights—my knees can no longer handle running.

By Frank Peterson on 08/12/2008 2:53 pm

I think it would be yesterday, or the day before,but not at the end of the rainbow.

By Charles Dance on 08/12/2008 3:20 pm

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My knees rebelled at my daily running, and I have switched to episodic hiking, not 30 minutes a day, but a couple hours a couple days a week. I don’t know if that will be as good, probably not, but at least my knees don’t scream at me anymore. The thing with osteoporosis is that we are treating it at the wrong time. We should be having required P.E. in every school in the U.S., serving milk instead of soft drinks and instilling in kids the importance to their long term health as well as their short term mental health of getting regular exercise. Half of the women in our generation and a large number of men will get osteoporosis, but the seeds for it were sown in vitamin D deficiency and driving instead of walking, Coke instead of milk, burger instead of salad kind of life. The kids today who are getting even less exercise than we did, getting driven to school instead of walking, trying to stay thin, are going to be more at risk than we are. I love to hear news that there is something we can actually do that will make us healthier. My favorite nugget in this respect involves taking 1000 I.U. of Vitamin D. There was a good article on it in last November’s Scientific American, but if one googles, one can find lots of information on how deficiencies of D are connected to cancer, osteoporosis, autoimmunity and more. And always we are wearing sunscreen.

By Elizabeth Bennett on 08/12/2008 4:14 pm

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Elizabeth B. Thanks for the mention of the SA article. I will look it up. I was really fortunate. My mother made us read Adelle Davis when we were in our teens. Let’s Get Well, etc. She made us learn and know what it took to have a healthy body. I always took Vit D supplements as well as a well rounded nutrition regimen. I had different levels of consistency of taking care of myself. Many times, I let it slide because I was taking care of others, lesson learned. But we never had coke as a kid, and we don’t keep it in our house. My 15 year old has never had a cavity, my 26 year old got cavities after he started high school and they had a “store” there that sold soft drinks. When I walk, I don’t wear sunscreen on my arms or legs to get my D. Have to leave it there for 2 hours for body to absorb it. When I went in for my bone density test I was in the least likely to get it category. I don’t know what that would be since chemo. My knees were hurt from riding and other things, a baby late in life, but my Doctor of Chinese Medicine has helped tremendously.

By Frannie Em on 08/12/2008 8:32 pm