Will increasing our heart rate also increase our life expectancy? This possibility has been at the center of various studies for some time, one of the ambitious studies investigates physical activity and mortality from any cause. The following research shows that older people, women and men, who engage in physical activity of any kind are relatively life-prolonging. But if some of the physical activity they do is intense, the chance of premature death drops even more and longevity climbs.
Studies have found that active people live longer than those who are less active. According to several studies done in the past, physical activity on a routine basis is strongly and clearly associated with longevity even if it is physical activity that is a few minutes a week. But all of these studies are observational, meaning that they looked at people in the present and determined the extent and duration of the current physical activity they do, and after a while checked whether they were still alive. Such connections can accurately locate connections between physical activity and life span, but they cannot prove that indeed activity and mobility really results in the fact that those people live longer.
According to several studies done in the past, physical activity on a routine basis is strongly and clearly associated with longevity | Photo: shutterstock
In order to test and prove that physical activity really prolongs the life of those who engage in it, volunteers must be harnessed for research for a long period of time which will be accompanied by a control group of random volunteers. The researchers will have to follow these volunteers for years until a significant number of them die in order to allow a statistical significance test. Such studies are complicated and discouraging, expensive and therefore relatively uncommon. Studies of this type are also limited because during the study period some of the participants die for one reason or another.
Those who are registered for the study are under the supervision of the scientists, but at the same time it is problematic because the scientists are studying their longevity, that is, mortality. This means that if there is a small number of deaths they will not be able to conclude that physical activity does have an effect and significance regarding longevity. A group of researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology examining the effects of physical activity on quality and longevity are not deterred by these obstacles.
Together with colleagues from other research institutes, they are studying the effects of many types of activities on heart disease, physical fitness, so it was requested to learn how this also affects longevity. Therefore, about 10 years ago they began planning a study that was published in October 2020 in the BMJ.
Scientists have discovered in studies that active people live longer than those who are less active | Photo: shutterstock
In the first stage, they invited volunteers in the age range of 70-79 years to participate. Mortality studies that involve older people are usually those that provide a lot of useful information, since there will probably be more deaths during the study period, in the older population than in the younger population. This fact will allow the comparison of longevity between the two study groups. Over 1500 men and women from Norway were accepted for the study. The volunteers are healthy, as expected from a population in their 70s. Some of them had underlying diseases such as heart disease, cancer or other conditions but in terms of daily functioning they were active. Few of them were obese.
All participants agreed to take part in the study and to be active on a routine basis over the next five years. The researchers examined the state of aerobic fitness at the beginning of the study as well as their subjective feelings about their quality of life. The volunteers were then randomly divided into one of 3 groups. A control group of people who agreed to live according to a standard protocol of activity, the main thing being to stay active for about an hour and a half every day during the study period (it should be noted that the researchers felt it was unethical to ask the control group to live a “sedentary” and inactive life for an extended period of time).
A second group began exercising at a moderate intensity, each workout lasting about 50 minutes twice a week. A third group began a twice-weekly program of high-intensity training or HIIT training during which they cycled or jogged at a pace for 4 minutes, followed by a 1-minute rest with this sequence repeated at least 4 times.
Almost all the participants persisted in the physical activity routine that they had committed to doing during the five-year study period, when from time to time they came to the laboratory for audits, for tests. During the period, the researchers noticed that a number of people in the control group began to engage in interval training in gyms in their vicinity, on personal initiative and for the sake of enjoyment. Other groups saw no changes in terms of their active lifestyle, beyond the routine they committed to as part of the study.
As a result of increasing the heart rate, will our longevity also increase? Photo: shutterstock
Five years later, the researchers looked at deaths and found that about 4.6 percent of all volunteers died during the study, a number lower than that recorded for the general population over 70 in Norway, which means that older people who engage in physical activity live beyond the average age. In addition they found differences between the groups. The women and men from the intensively active group had about 2% less risk of dying than those in the control group, and 3% less chance of dying than anyone in the group that did prolonged but moderate-intensity training. Volunteers in the moderate intensity training group were more prone to death than those in the control group. The women and men in the interval group (the group of shorter high-intensity training) also had better physical fitness and reported significant changes for the better in their quality of life, compared to the volunteers in the other groups.
In fact, vigorous intense training that was part of the routine of the volunteers’ lives in the control group and the high intensity group – provided them with good protection from premature death, and this compared to the volunteers who engaged in moderate activity for a long time.
Of course, physical activity is not a “cure-all”, and there are people who still have underlying diseases that accompany them, despite their involvement in sports, diseases that will cause their death, and it doesn’t matter what type of sport or how intense it is. The researchers believe that the study conveys a comprehensive and plausible message that we must remain active and include some form of physical activity throughout our lives, some of which will be vigorous high
According to Dr. Stanwald, one of the researchers, intervals are a safe and accessible activity for the majority of the population. Intervals add life to years and not only years to life, or in other words: Adding life to years, and not only years to life – therefore this is an important issue that needs to be emphasized , especially in old age: combine physical activity that includes interval work.