A Fit Heart Can Mean a Long Life
As regular readers of this site know, I have sometimes have reservations about the latest statistic or study. I read about a study a while ago that is interesting in that it seems to support some of my admittedly unscientific ideas.
The study looked at people age 60 and older to see what effect a "fit heart" had on longevity. Now on the surface, this seems a no-brainer. Of course people with a fit heart would tend to live longer than those with an unhealthy heart. But the study did not look specifically at healthy vs. unhealthy hearts. It looked at heart fitness levels and tried to see if, as fitness increased, did people live longer?
This is of interest because all of us know at least a couple of very elderly, healthy, people, who have never formally exercised in their lives. We also know the occasional very elderly person who does not exercise, is overweight, and is still going strong. I have a belief, that some evidence supports, that genetics plays a big role in this. The intriguing question is would a seeming healthy out of shape person who lives until 85 because of good genetics, have lived a healthy life until 95 or 100 if they had been fit?
Over more that 10 years in the study it was found that fitness of the heart as measured by cardio stress tests, like a treadmill, directly indicated a longer life. In fact those judged to be most fit had death rates 1/2 of those judged least fit. This was true across the board, regardless of obesity level. In other words, fat people with a fit heart lived longer than thin or normal weight people with a less fit heart.
This may seem like good news for many that are overweight, but there are cautions to be applied. Information on diet and heredity was not considered in the study. The researchers simply looked at the fitness of the heart. To me this points to a disturbing reality. The part of our lifestyle that can be the hardest to influence may indeed be the most important when it comes to length of life. Although controlling diet and eating healthy food can be difficult, it is easier for many than finding time in our busy schedules for regular exercise.
The apparent indication, at least from this one study, is that exercise to maintain a healthy heart may be more important than diet. I don’t agree and in my next post, I will outline why I have reservations about the results.
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