Go jogging-and eat carrots – to boost longevity once you hit 70!

Another study has found that exercise – like jogging, walking, or swimming- and consuming vegetables could increase your lifespan once you hit 70. The study, published by Emily J. Nicklett, et al, in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, followed more than 700 women in their 70’s in the Pittsburgh area, over a 5-year period.

“The present study found that physical activity and total serum carotenoids are strong and independent predictors of survival in older women living in the community. This offers preliminary support for the hypothesis that a diet high in fruit and vegetables, as reflected by high total serum carotenoid concentrations, combined with high physical activity would each demonstrate a protective association with 5-year mortality independent of one another. Therefore, exercise and nutrition should both be analyzed when assessing the health and projected life span of older women. Programs and policies to promote longevity should include interventions to improve nutrition and physical activity in older adults.”

The most physically active study participants -in other words, the ones who exercised the most – were nearly twice as likely to survive over the 5-year period as were the sedentary ones.

The authors conclude that even though they’ve shown that exercise and carotenoid intake will prolong life,

“…further work is required to validate and extend these findings in other populations so that appropriate groups can be targeted for interventions that incorporate diet and physical activity. The implications of this work are that interventions should combine improvements in diet and physical activity—rather than examine changes in isolation—to improve survival in older populations.”

Jogging with your best drone friend – the joggobot

The joggobot is a drone designed to run in front of runners. Why exactly? Im not sure.

I’m a runner who enjoys my time alone on long outings. So I’m perplexed by researchers who’ve developed a flying robot to keep runners company when they can’t find a partner to hit the road with. Here’s how Forbes is reporting on it:

Runners, you no longer have to convince your reluctant partner to put on sneaks and hit the streets with you, thanks to my new favorite drone: the Joggobot, a companion robot for runners. Using a built-in camera, the autonomous drone hones in on sensors in a custom shirt and exhorts you to keep up with it.

“People might feel chased if the Joggobot was behind them,” says researcher Eberhard Grather in a video.  So instead your little drone friend  flies in front of you.

Floyd Mueller and Grather, researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, tricked out the Parrot AR Drone, which is usually operated with a smartphone, to fly autonomously. You can set it for companion mode — in which the drone flies at a steady pace — or coach mode, “which sets a slightly more challenging speed,” reports WiredUK. (Coach mode sounds suspiciously like the fake rabbit used on dog race tracks.)”

In case you’re wondering, the batteries only last 20 minutes. So you won’t get too far with your best drone friend. The biggest problem I see with this is the number of people out in front of me on a run who will get nailed in the back of the head by the drone. Also, are that many runners out there looking for a flying friend? Why, why, why?

This isn’t my bag baby, but I must say that I enjoyed watching the promotional video for the product, because the flying robot thing looks pretty cool for someone born in the 60’s and raised on shows like the Jetsons.

Should Joggers Pace for the Long-Term?

If you train and compete hard in the early part of your life, does that leave less gas in the tank in the latter part of your life?

That’s the interesting question raised by Gina Kolata in her NY Times Health blog this week:

“There are no definitive data on this question, but there are some suggestive findings, said Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon and exercise researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Wright’s study of senior Olympians — athletes age 50 and older who participated in the National Senior Olympic Games, a track and field event — found what she considers a surprisingly small rate of decline in performance until age 75: just a few percent a year in their times. After that, though, the athletes slowed down considerably.

She asked the athletes when they began participating in sports. In her survey, 95 percent said they were active in sports when they were teenagers and 85 percent said they were active as young adults.

But the survey did not ask what sports they played when they were younger — the same sports or different ones from those they were competing in now — or when they began to compete (it is likely that many of the women, growing up before Title IX, did not compete when they were young). Both factors bear on whether late-blooming athletes have an advantage as they get older.”

Her piece goes on to quote another researcher who suggests that VO2Max rates drop more rapidly in older people who were once athletic compared to those who were sedentary.

There was a maxim around my home when I was growing up (which applied to everything from alcohol, to food, to exercise): “everything in moderation”. My gut tells me it could serve us exercise addicts well.

There’s no arguing that accumulated injuries and  psychological fatigue are factors. But does the human body also come with a maximum number of lifetime kilometres? If Anton Krupicka circles the globe three times before he turns 50, can he expect to do it again after the age 50?

As a sports journalist, I’ve been inspired by the stories of so many athletes, from the Olympic backstroker who won gold in Barcelona in 1992, to the 85-year-old triathlete who won his age category gold at the World Masters Championships 1999. That the swimmer never swan again after the Olympics and the triathlete only began his training in his late 50’s surely have affected my view on this.

Light jogging and longevity

Gain might come without pain

It’s just one study, but it touches on one of my favorite topics. Can science actually tell us whether running or jogging is good for us? And what is the ideal amount?

A Danish study suggests light workouts over the long term might be best

A study from Copenhagen looked at people between the ages of 20 and 93, and measured how much they ran. They did this over a 20-year period. Turns out people jogging lightly, a couple of times of week, are living longer lives.

For me, the study’s biggest limitation is in what it measures! Longevity is a commonly used marker for health, but how does it compare to other factors? How many people actually run so they can live longer?  A lot of people run because they feel pleasure in the moment. Others do it because it makes them feel stronger with everything they do in life.

The trails of New Jersey! Some people run for the joy of being in the woods.

For more on the study from Peter Schnohr, MD, in Copenhagen, please read the JAMA article  by clicking here.