Need a solid excuse to dust off your running shoes?
Joggers have been found to live an average of six years longer than those who
don't jog.
However, you’ll have to run for at least one hour a
week for benefit, according to a new study in Denmark.
Researchers found that jogging was associated with a
44 per cent reduction in the relative risk of death for those over 35 years
compared with deaths among those who did not run.
The same benefit applied to both men and women.
The 44 per cent reduction translates to an
‘age-adjusted survival benefit’ of 6.2 years in men and 5.6 years in women,
according to Dr. Peter Schnohr, chief cardiologist from the Copenhagen City
Heart study.
Furthermore, the jogger’s lives are not only longer
but happier too as those who ran reported an overall sense of well-being, said
Schnohr.
'The results of our research allow us to definitively
answer the question of whether jogging is good for your health,' Schnohr said
in a statement.
'We can say with certainty that regular jogging
increases longevity. The good news is that you don't actually need to do that
much to reap the benefits,' he continued.
Fighting fit: The study also found that joggers
led happier lives
The study also found that the optimum benefit of
jogging was for those who jogged at a slow-to-average pace for between an hour
and two and a half hours spread over two or three weekly sessions.
The revelations are the latest to come out of the
Copenhagen City Heart Study which began in 1976. At the beginning of the
programme the study’s 19,329 participants’ age ranged from 20 to 79.
The 1,878 participants in the most recent study were
asked how often and how quickly they ran.
Researchers then compared deaths among the joggers
among the non-joggers in the main study pool of almost 20,000.
Over 35 years, 122 joggers died compared with 10,158
non-joggers.
