Regular jogging could add more than five years to your life expectancy.
This is the startling result of a comprehensive study, based on figures for Copenhageners’ life expectancy. The findings have not yet been published in a scientific journal, but they have just been presented at the EuroPRevent2012 in Dublin.
“Our study shows that men increase their life expectancy by an average of 6.2 years if they jog, and women by 5.6 years,” says the man behind the research project, MD Peter Schnohr, a senior researcher at Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen.
The findings are based on the Copenhagen City Heart Study – a comprehensive population study, which has so far resulted in more than 700 scientific articles about health.
The study was started back in 1976, when Danish health researchers decided to learn more about heart disease in the Danish population.
Schnohr was one of the doctors who launched the project. Back in 1969, he helped organise the first ‘Eremitageløb’, a popular annual fun run in Copenhagen. This inaugural run made the headlines because a 46-year-old man collapsed with heart problems and died.
This was the beginning of a long series of newspaper articles about how the new jogging craze could kill middle-aged men.
The 1970s saw a steady stream of stories from the US about middle-aged joggers falling dead in the middle of a run.
“That left us wondering: is this dangerous?” says Schnohr.
“That’s why we focused on jogging from the very start. Today – 35 years later – we can finally conclude that jogging is not dangerous. On the contrary, it is beneficial.”
Some 20,000 people, aged between 20 and 93, took part in the Copenhagen City Heart Study.
Based on these figures, taking account of differences such as age, smoking habits, blood pressure and cholesterol, the researchers calculated that the risk of dying in the 35-year period was 44 percent lower for those who were in the habit of jogging – and that applied to men and women alike.
Schnohr adds, however, that it can be a bad idea to jog too much. The figures from the study indicate that people who do a lot of jogging actually tend to die as early as those who don’t engage in jogging at all.
”It’s common sense to try and recover between the runs,” he says. “Old people, in particular, should avoid running more than two times a week.”
The Copenhagen City Heart Study tracks the development of cardiovascular disease in the population and compares it with known and new risk factors, such as obesity, lack of exercise, smoking and blood pressure.
The population group has been examined four times: in 1976-78, 1981-83, 1991-94 and in 2001-03. A fifth trial is currently taking place.
He offers a conservative estimate of how much jogging is directly healthy:
”I would say a total of 1-2.5 hours per week, spread over no more than three runs. The important thing is that the jogging leaves you short of breath.”
Although the figures have yet to be finalised, they reveal a clear tendency:
“Not exercising at all is bad for you, and so is doing too much of it. And that applies to both cycling, walking and jogging.”
The study doesn’t say anything specific about how many years you need to keep up the jogging in order to prolong your life.
”We actually don’t know. But I believe the beneficial effects come quickly. We know that a 70-year-old gains 2-3 years by taking up cycling. I usually say that the older you are, the more you get out of your workout.”
This study claims to have busted the myth that jogging shortens life expectancy. But what was it then that caused all the deaths among joggers in the ‘70s?
Other findings from the Copenhagen City Heart Study include:
”People didn’t know much about heart disease back then, so people signed up for the runs, even though they may have been sick,” says Schnohr.
“Today people know more. But there are still those who are unaware that they have a severe heart disease.”
He says that for people over the age of 40, even a slow jog can be hard work, so it’s important not to overdo it.
An article with the latest findings from the Copenhagen City Heart Study has been submitted to an internationally acclaimed American medical journal.