How Much Do You Have to Run to Improve Health?
The answer may surprise you.
Today, we turn to the inspiring results from a recent study published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This current study suggests that if more folks took up running and wouldn’t have to run far or fast, we would see substantial population health improvements.
Researchers from Australia analyzed fourteen studies (including over two hundred and thirty-two thousand subjects. They tracked their health for between 5.5 and 35 years. During the study observation period, nearly twenty-six thousand participants died. Here is what the researchers found:
Any running amount was linked to a lower risk of death by almost a third (a relative thirty percent), and a roughly quarter (twenty-three percent) reduction in the risk of death from cancer.
It Doesn’t Take Much
So how much jogging do you need to do? Even as little as fifty minutes of running once a week at a pace slower than six miles per hour appears to be protective. The study authors offer that running is a good option for those who say they are too busy to exercise.
We do not fully understand why running is associated with a reduced risk of premature death. The current study does not establish causality, and the number of studies analyzed was…
