Reduce Risk of Early Death with Any Amount of Running

Researchers suggest that you can reduce the risk of early death no matter how many hours you clock up a week or how fast you run.

Reduce risk of early death with any amount of running. Photo: Stage 7 Photography/Unsplash

According to the World Health Organization, about 3.2 million deaths each year are down to people not doing enough physical activity.

Researchers say the latest findings push back against results from other studies that have hinted benefits increase with more running but might drop at very high levels.

The research focuses on 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.‌

Each study was slightly different, with some comparing those who were involved in running groups with those who did not run, while others classified those who ran at least once a month as a “runner”.

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% lower risk of early death from any cause during the follow-up periods, and a 30% and 23% lower risk of early death from cardiovascular problems or cancer respectively.

The team then looked at a subset of the studies, covering three of the groups of participants, to explore whether different frequencies, duration or paces of running might be linked to a different level of benefit when it came to death from any cause.

They found no sign of such a trend. Significant benefits were seen even among those running once a week or less, less than 50 minutes a week, or at a pace of 6mph (9.5km/h) or less, with no bigger reduction in the risk of early death at greater levels of running.

Dr Željko Pedišić, the first author of the research from Victoria University in Australia, said: “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.”

Pedišić stressed the finding did not mean running to any degree resulted in a 27% lower risk of early death from any cause, since dose-response was looked at in a smaller number of studies than used to calculate the overall effect.

The authors note current NHS guidelines recommend 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week for adults (or 150 minutes of moderate activity). But Pedišić said the study suggested even slightly less time spent running could produce similar benefits when it came to the risk of early death.

Dr Charlie Foster of Bristol University, who chairs the UK chief medical officers’ expert committee for physical activity, said: “Find the activity you enjoy the most and stick with it. But if you can’t run, walk as much as you can too.” (Tasnim News Agency)

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