Study: Diversifying sports activities prolongs life

In a study conducted by a research team from several universities and scientific bodies, such as Harvard Medical School , South Korea’s Syonsei University, and China’s Chongqing University, and published in the scientific journal BMJ Medicine, which specializes in medical research, the researchers followed the health status of more than 110,000 adults over a period of thirty years.

The volunteers engaged in a variety of activities ranging from exercise and running to cycling , strength training , yoga, climbing stairs, and more.

During the study period, approximately 39,000 participants died from causes related to heart disease , cancer , and respiratory problems.

The study revealed that exercise , particularly individual sports, reduces the overall risk of death. For example, walking reduces the risk of death by 17 percent and climbing stairs reduces the risk by 10 percent, but the greatest benefit comes from diversifying the forms of exercise a person practices.

It turns out that diversifying the nature of the physical effort a person exerts reduces the risk of death by 19 percent overall, while reducing the likelihood of death from cardiovascular diseases, cancer and respiratory problems by between 13 and 41 percent.

The HealthDay website quoted researchers involved in the study as saying that this research does not prove a causal relationship between exercise and the likelihood of death, but it indicates that diversifying the nature of the effort a person exerts is no less important than exercising in itself.