Athletes who push themselves to maximum performance don’t appear to pay a price when it comes to their longevity, a new study says. The first 200 athletes to run a mile in under four minutes actually outlived the general population by nearly five years on average, according to results published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This counters the popular belief that extreme exercise might push the body too far and shorten life expectancy, researchers said. For centuries, some have promoted the idea of a “U-shaped” association between health and exercise, with either too little or too much physical activity doing damage to a person’s well being. “Our findings challenge the notion that extreme endurance exercise may be detrimental to longevity, reinforcing the benefits of exercise even at training levels required for elite performance,” concluded the team led by senior researcher Mark Haykowsky, research chair of aging and quality of life at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. The study marks the 70th anniversary of the first time a person ran a mile in under four minutes, researchers said. The English neurologist and athlete Roger Bannister first broke this milestone in May 1954. Bannister died in 2018, at the age of 88. For the study, researchers looked at the first 200 athletes to break the four-minute mile and compared them to the average person’s…  read on >  read on >

Children and young adults who are couch potatoes could wind up with enlarged hearts, increasing their risk of heart attack, stroke and early death. Sedentary behavior contributed as much as 40% to the total increase in heart size between the ages of 17 and 24, researchers found. Further, a lack of movement helped enlarge teens’ hearts independent of other risk factors like obesity or high blood pressure, researchers found. Childhood and teenage sedentary behavior amounts to a “ticking time bomb,” researcher Andrew Agbaje said in a news release. He’s an associate professor of clinical epidemiology and child health at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio. “There is growing evidence that childhood sedentariness is a health threat that needs to be taken seriously,” he said. On the other hand, children who regularly engaged in light physical activity reduced their increase in heart mass by 49%, researchers said. “Light physical activity is an effective antidote to sedentariness. It is easy to accumulate three to four hours of light physical activity daily,” Agbaje said. Examples of light physical activity include outdoor games, walking a dog, running errands, walking and biking to stores or to school, taking a stroll in the park, playing in the forest, gardening, and casual games of basketball, soccer, golf, frisbee, he said. Kids who regularly worked out even harder tended to increase their heart…  read on >  read on >

Doctors argue that genetics aren’t destiny when it comes to a person’s health, and a study appears to support that notion. A healthy lifestyle can offset the effects of life-shortening genes by more than 60%, researchers found. People at high genetic risk of a curtailed lifespan could extend their life expectancy by nearly 5.5 years if they’ve adopted a healthy lifestyle by age 40, results show. On the other hand, an unhealthy lifestyle is associated with a 78% increased risk of an early death, regardless of a person’s genetic predisposition. The study highlights “the pivotal role of a healthy lifestyle in mitigating the impact of genetic factors on lifespan reduction,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Xue Li with the Center of Clinical Big Data and Analytics of The Second Affiliated Hospital at Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China. “Public health policies for improving healthy lifestyles would serve as potent complements to conventional healthcare and mitigate the influence of genetic factors on human lifespan,” the researchers said. For the study, researchers analyzed data drawn from nearly 354,000 people participating in the UK Biobank genetics and health study. More than 24,000 died over an average follow-up of nearly 13 years. Each person was scored based on their genetic health risks, and they also received a score regarding the healthiness of their lifestyle. A…  read on >  read on >

Want to live longer? Choose the stairs over the elevator, a new review suggests. Folks who regularly climb stairs have a 24% reduced risk of dying from any cause, and a 39% reduced risk of dying from heart disease, compared to those who always take the elevator, researchers found. Stair climbing also is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease or suffering a heart attack, heart failure or stroke, results show. “If you have the choice of taking the stairs or the lift, go for the stairs as it will help your heart,” researcher Dr. Sophie Paddock, of the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Foundation Trust in Norwich, U.K.. Stair climbing is a practical, easily accessible form of physical activity, Paddock said. Despite this, it’s often overlooked by folks rushing to get to a higher floor. “Even brief bursts of physical activity have beneficial health impacts, and short bouts of stair climbing should be an achievable target to integrate into daily routines,” Paddock said. For the study, researchers pooled data from nine studies involving more than 480,000 people. Studies were included regardless of the number of flights people climbed or the speed at which they took them. “Based on these results, we would encourage people to incorporate stair climbing into their day-to-day lives,” Paddock said in a news…  read on >  read on >

Another broiling summer looms, along with another season of kids’ summer sports. It’s a potentially harmful, even lethal combination. But experts at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) have advice for kids, parents and coaches on how to keep young athletes safe when thermometers rise. Each year, an estimated 240 people die from heat-linked illnesses, and heat stroke is the third-ranked cause of death for young U.S. high school athletes, according to NCH. Heat poses special threats to young athletes, said Dr. Thomas Pommering, medical director for Nationwide Children’s Sports Medicine. “Youth and adolescent athletes sweat less, create more heat per body mass, and acclimate much slower than adults to warmer environments, putting them at greater risk for heat-related injuries in hot and humid temperatures,” he said in an online post from the hospital. Spotting heat-linked illness There are telltale signs on the playing field (or anywhere) that someone may be overcome by the heat. Various types of heat illness include: Heat cramps. As too much sweating causes salt and water to leave the body, this can cause severe cramping in the limbs and abdomen. Heat syncope. Syncope is the medical term for fainting, which can be preceded by weakness and fatigue. Heat exhaustion. This could manifest in cool, pale skin and the onset of headache, nausea, chills, weakness, unsteadiness, dizziness, rapid pulse, excessive thirst and muscle…  read on >  read on >

Active women using the pill appear to receive an added bonus from their birth control, a new study says. These women are less likely to suffer sprains and strains than women not on birth control, researchers reported recently in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Women taking oral contraceptives had significantly fewer tendon and muscle injuries than women not on the pill or men, results show. These sorts of injuries are among the most common in sports, researchers said. “This understanding holds promise for informing the development of targeted preventive strategies and interventions aimed at reducing injury risk in women, benefiting both athletic and nonathletic populations,” said lead researcher Luis Rodriguez. He’s a doctoral candidate with the Joint Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program at University of Texas-Dallas and University of Texas-Southwestern. For the study, researchers analyzed health data for more than 126,000 men and women between the ages of 18 and 39 who were either normal weight or overweight and had sustained an orthopedic injury. About 0.5% of women on the pill had a sprain or strain, versus 2.5% of women not taking birth control and 3.5% of men, researchers found. Overall, women taking the pill were 85% less likely than men to suffer a sprained muscle or strained tendon, results show. Meanwhile, women not taking the pill were only about 26% less likely…  read on >  read on >

Walking is one of the best exercises available to average folks, and it can be as easy as stepping out your front door, experts say. “It is something you can easily fit into your lifestyle,” said Dr. James McDeavitt, professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and executive vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine. Walking has been shown to improve heart health and contribute to better mental health. It can even ward off osteoporosis by toughening up bones, McDeavitt added. Walking also serves as a wonderful entry point for someone looking to improve physical activity, since it involves less wear and tear on the joints than running. Even for people with health problems that impair mobility, walking is a good exercise option, McDeavitt said. Indoor running tracks provide a safe environment, particularly if someone has the company of a caregiver or loved one. However, treadmills and other automated cardio machines should be avoided by those with severe mobility issues, as there’s a greater risk of injury with those devices. Folks who’ve been inactive should start by consistently walking five to 10 minutes a day, and then gradually increasing that time, McDeavitt said. McDeavitt recommends walking at a low intensity for a longer duration to get the most out of walking, rather than trying to power-walk. However, walking at a faster…  read on >  read on >