Running For A Longer Life

As kids, we ran everywhere. We ran to friends’ homes, ran to not be late for school and ran around on the playground in the greatest games of tag to ever exist. As adults, we run late, run for public transit and run through our days in hopes of keeping our bosses happy. But, are you running for the sake of staying healthy?

Whether you go to the gym and see attendees frequenting treadmills, or witness people in bright fluorescent attire jogging along the sidewalk, you become aware that running is good for you. But some adults, as you could imagine, don’t find running as easy (or fun!) to do as we did when we were kids. That said, regardless of how you view running, it really is an activity we should be doing to keep our health top-notch.

According to the Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases review that was released in March, people who run live 3.2 years longer than those who don’t. What’s more, researchers said that for every hour of your life you spend running, you increase your lifespan by seven hours.

Interestingly, this report discovered that it didn’t matter what gender you are; how healthy or unhealthy you are; or whether you’re over 50 and drink alcohol – if you run, you are in much better form than those who don’t.

Furthermore, women and smokers benefit most from running. Women runners are 68% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, while runners who puff are 66% less likely to die from that illness as well.

Researchers also determined that while it’s still productive and positive to participate in activities like swimming, cycling, rowing, or even brisk walking, running still offered the best health benefits. This is believed to be the case since all of your body weight goes into action when running, while activities like cycling and swimming are ones in which your body is partially supported during.

That said, experts note that if you happen to have an ailment that prevents you from running regularly, remaining physically active in other ways is encouraged.

-Adam Grant