More Is Better: the Dose-Dependent Effect of Exercise on Health and Longevity Research has confirmed that government guidelines maximize the benefit to longevity for each hour spent exercising. Governments and health care providers tell us that we should eat a specified minimum amount of fruit and vegetables and take a particular minimum amount of exercise. But given that these recommendations mean changes – perhaps sometimes ones we’d prefer not to make – in our daily lives, how far can we trust them to deliver longer and healthier lives for the effort we’re being asked to make? It seems that we…
It’s Not Too Late! Even if You’ve Postponed Exercising to Middle Age, You Can Still Reap the Benefits of a Longer, Healthier Life Sedentary people who take up exercise in mid-life can lower their risk of premature death by almost as much as if they’d always been physically active. If you’re among the many people who’ve led a largely sedentary lifestyle into middle age, you can take up exercise and reverse much of the extra risk to health that usually results from inactivity. Better still, a new study suggests that you can gain almost all the health and longevity benefits…
Want to Reduce Your Risk of Death? Fitness Matters More Than Weight Says a New Study It’s long been clear that, for most people, long-term obesity places them at greater risk of developing conditions such as diabetes and heart disease that not only reduce their quality of life but increases the risk of premature death. But losing substantial amounts of weight by restricting what you eat can represent an enormous challenge. Can you protect your health and life by increasing physical activity instead? Might it make sense, in other words, to be “fat but fit”? Many studies have investigated this…