KOPENHAGEN – Elke week slechts een uur lang joggen kan vijf jaar of langer aan je leven toevoegen. Dat beweren onderzoekers van de Bispebjerg University Hospital in Kopenhagen, zo meldt Today.

Uit een langlopende studie (sinds 1976) naar hart- en vaatziekten bij ongeveer 20.000 mensen tussen de 20 en 93 jaar oud, werd een subgroep geselecteerd.

Van bijna 2.000 hardlopers werd het effect van hardlopen op hun gezondheid onder de loep genomen.

Daaruit kwam naar voren dat ‘langzaam of gemiddeld’ lopen beter is voor de gezondheid dan helemaal niet joggen, of tijdens het joggen de ‘fysieke limieten’ op te zoeken.

De ‘rustige’ groep hardlopers hadden een hogere levensverwachting die voor mannen met zes jaar en voor vrouwen met vijf jaar toenam.

“Je moet tijdens het hardlopen proberen op het punt te komen dat je een beetje buiten adem bent, maar niet erg buiten adem”, zegt een van de onderzoekers.

Lees verder

Jogging adds five years or more to life, cardiologists say

Updated 12:15 PM May 04, 2012

LONDON – Regularly jogging increases life expectancy for men by six years and women by five years, cardiologists have found.

As little as an hour a week is enough to deliver the surprising health benefit, according to the medics, who studied the longevity of around 2,000 Danish joggers with that of those who exercised less.

What is more, they found that gentle jogging appeared to be better in terms of adding years to one’s life, than cranking up the pace.

Male joggers who spent between 60 minutes and two-and-a-half hours a week, split into two or three runs, treading the pavements at a “slow or average” pace lived on average 6.2 years longer than non-exercisers, found the team working on the Copenhagen City Heart Study.

Female joggers derived slightly less benefit, but still an impressive 5.6 extra years.

The results of the research are being presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, being held in Dublin this weekend.

Dr Peter Schnohr, chief cardiologist on the heart study project, said: “We can say with certainty that regular jogging increases longevity.

“The good news is that you don’t actually need to do that much to reap the benefits.”

The Daily Telegraph reported that the study, started in 1976, has followed the cardiovascular health of around 20,000 people aged 20 to 93.

The jogging sub-study looked at 1,116 male joggers and 762 female joggers and compared their lifespans to non-joggers in the main study population. Joggers were asked to assess whether they ran at a slow, average, or fast pace.

Dr Schnohr, who is based at Bispebjerg University Hospital in Copenhagen, said there was a U-shaped relationship between the amount and intensity of jogging and a person’s risk of dying over a particular period.

He said: “Mortality is lower in people reporting moderate jogging, than in non-joggers or those undertaking extreme levels of exercise.

“You should aim to feel a little breathless, but not very breathless.”

Last year he presented similar research from the same heart study, looking at the impact of cycle commuting on cardiovascular health.

It found slightly different results: those who pedalled the hardest, tended to live the longest.

He said at the time: “It is the intensity, not the duration, of cycling that is of the greatest importance in relation to all forms of mortality, or longevity, and it is even more pronounced for coronary heart disease.”

The difference is probably explained by the fact that, as performed by most people, normal jogging is more strenuous than normal cycling.

Ms Natasha Stewart, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Physical activity has long been associated with improved health and so it’s no surprise to see just how beneficial jogging could be.” AGENCIES