KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 – A new research has suggested that any amount of running could lower the risk of early death.
“Any amount of running, even just once a week, is better than no running, but higher doses of running may not necessarily be associated with greater mortality benefits,” said the authors of the study, according to The Guardian.
The latest study contradicts results from other studies that have hinted benefits increase with more running.
The research, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, took into account 14 previous studies based on six different groups of participants, totalling more than 230,000 people who were followed over periods ranging between 5.5 and 35 years.
A total of 25,951 of the participants from the studies died.
When the team combined results from five of the participant groups, and compared those who ran to any degree with those who did not, they found runners had a 27 per cent lower risk of early death from any cause during the follow-up periods, and a 30 per cent and 23 per cent lower risk of early death from cardiovascular problems or cancer respectively.
Dr Željko Pedišić, the first author of the research from Victoria University in Australia, said that the results did not mean running at any amount resulted in a 27 per cent lower risk of early death from any cause, as dose-response was looked at in a smaller number of studies than used to calculate the overall effect.
He also added that that the data for the least active runners could not be analysed more, which means that a minimum level of running could be necessary before any health benefits are gained.
“Any running is probably good for your health and you can achieve those benefits by running even just once a week or running 50 minutes a week, but that shouldn’t discourage those who run more than that amount, who maybe enjoy running three times a week or six times a week,” Dr Pedišić stressed.
