I am usually not one to delve deeply into scientific or medical research studies. They come along every few weeks and can often make for heavy reading. But one such study published recently caught my eye because of its relevance to what we are all discussing and debating in relation to getting fit and staying healthy.
The study, the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH), conducted by a team from Universities of Sydney and Queensland, and published by PLOS Medicine, was a longitudinal research of 11,000 Australian women aged in their 40’s and 50’s. The study followed these participants over 15 years to measure their physical health over time.
It followed and analysed women in Australia aged 47 to 52 from 1998 to 2019, with intermittent check-ups for mental and physical health occurring every three years. The published results clearly demonstrate that it is never too late to start on a journey to create a healthy life, with the dual benefits of firstly, enjoying a healthy life and secondly, living longer.
The exercise guidelines used for the study parameters were a regular exercise regime of a minimum of 150 minutes of programmed physical exercise per week.
At any age, participants who followed the exercise guidelines showed a measurable benefit from simply doing regular exercise. Those that started before 50 showed better health scores than those who did not. However, interestingly, the study showed that it did not matter if a participant had practised little or no physical exercise in their younger years, they all benefited from making a start, even after 50 years of age.
After 15 years, the researchers carried out a follow-up study which included those participants who started at 50 and who had done little or no prior exercise before starting the program. They found that even this group’s test scores for physical condition were virtually the same as the group of women who regularly exercised before their mid-life. The benefit to both groups was measured as three percentage points ahead of women who never or rarely met the exercise guidelines.
To put the percentage points difference into context, other research suggests that just one point difference on this physical activity test can lower the risk of mortality in the general population.
The test parameters included not just measures of the participant’s health against a benchmark population standard, but just as importantly included measures for ‘freedom from, or reduction of, illness and disease’. Such debilitating aliments included dementia, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis.
So, to summarise, this Australian study over 15 years, showed that even if a woman at mid-life commenced a structured exercise program of 150 minutes a week, she could expect to benefit with a healthier and longer life, irrespective of whether she was physically active in her younger years. The benefits gained were measurable as these women entered their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
Although the research study followed only women, it should be possible to apply some or all of the results and beneficial effects of exercising to the guideline standards to Australian men also. Perhaps we’ll see such a study of Australian men before too long, as well.
If you would like to find out how to commence an exercise program that meets the study’s guidelines, contact the training experts at Renewed After 50. You’ll be healthier and probably live longer!
Attribution:
Copyright: © 2024 Nguyen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.