Mix Exercise Types for a Longer Life: Study Finds 19% Lower Mortality
Exercise is one of the keys to living well—and longer—along with eating a nutritious diet and managing your stress. But exactly which exercise regimen is best for you isn’t easy to figure out.
A new study published in BMJ Medicine might provide some guidance. The researchers studied more than 100,000 people who reported their physical activity for about 30 years and found that varying the way you move could be critically important for living a longer life.
The scientists analyzed data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study that included healthy health professionals who reported on their exercise habits—what type of physical activity they did,and how long they exercised—every few years for 30 years. The researchers then compared deaths from various causes, like heart disease, cancer, and respiratory illnesses, to these exercise patterns to determine which were linked to longer life.
Not surprisingly, people who exercised more on average had anywhere from 4% to 17% lower risk of death during the study period, depending on the type of activity they did, compared to those who exercised less. But when the scientists broke