Run for an Active Old Age

Newsflash for everyone who says running is bad for your joints: Research says that running could actually help avert mobility problems in later life.

A study by Standford University tracked the health of runners and non-runners over 20 years. Among the 500 runners they followed from middle age to their 70s and 80s, researchers found fewer disabilities, a longer span of active life, and they were half as likely as aging non-runners to die early deaths.

The Secret of Youth?

“The study has a very pro-exercise message,” said James Fries MD, an emeritus professor of medicine at the medical school. “If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise.”

Dr Eliza Chakravarty, assistant professor of medicine, adds, “We found that a commitment to running, even in the middle and later years of life, not only slows down the rate by which people accrue disability and physical impairment, but also has a notable survival advantage for all causes of death. These results continued to be true even as people entered their ninth decade of life.”

Run to Live

When Fries and his team began their research in 1984, many scientists thought vigorous exercise would do older folk more harm than good. Some feared the long-term effect of the then-new jogging craze would be floods of orthopaedic injuries, with senior runners permanently hobbled by their exercise habit. Dr Fries, on the other hand, believed regular exercise would extend high-quality, disability-free life. Keeping the body moving, he thought, would reduce the period towards the end of life when people couldn’t carry out daily tasks on their own. It seems he was right - the runners were found to be more active and able. What’s more, they appear to be living longer as well.

Fries was surprised the gap between runners and non-runners continued to widen even as his subjects entered their nineties. “The effect was probably due to runners’ greater lean body mass and healthier habits in general,” he said.


No Extra Knee Damage

As for those predictions of joint damage, the Stanford study found that the runners they followed were no more likely to encounter these problems than the non-runners.

Dr Chakravarty said, “We looked at the development of osteoarthritis (wear and tear arthritis) in the knees in the runners compared to the non-runners, and are happy to report that we did not find any increases in arthritis among the runners.”

“Runners also do not require more total knee replacements than non-runners,” said Dr Fries. “Running straight ahead without pain is not harmful.”

Fries, 69, practises what he preaches - he’s an accomplished runner, mountaineer and outdoor adventurer, with no intention of hanging up his running shoes anytime soon.

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