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Run! It May Add Years to Your Life
Researchers from Stanford compared runners in their mid-50s with non-exercising community members. Twenty-one years later, the death rate was more than 50 percent lower among the runners.
Running increases lifespan. That is the oft-stated conclusion of numerous studies. Let’s first look at an expert analysis of a collection of studies.
In their piece entitled “Is running associated with a lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and is more better? Researchers examined fourteen studies. They concluded that:
“Increased participation in running, regardless of amount, would probably lead to substantial improvements in population health and longevity. Any amount of running appears to be better than none, but higher amounts may not be associated with greater mortality benefits.”
A 2018 analysis of a group of studies on running and life length found that runners have about a nearly one-third lower rate of all-cause mortality on follow-up than non-runners. The meta-analysis showed that running participation is associated with 27, 30, and 23 percent lower [relative] risks of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality, respectively, compared with no running.
