Doctors recommend that one should indulge in daily physical exercises to stay healthy. Does working out actually work out to reduce death expectancy in people. A recent study explores the possibilities.

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A research done by UKK Institute For Health Promotion Research In Finland shows that exercise can slash your risk of death by a whopping 28%. It also explores how certain exercise can benefit some important organs in your body.

Some studies show that vigorous exercises, like running, swimming, etc. have higher impact on your body than passive workouts like walking. These studies also saw the effects of such passive exercises on health, like how a 6-week exercise program can benefit heart health. They found that there were no long-term effects on the participant’s health.

Researchers wanted to see if exercise really wards off death in the form of cardiovascular diseases or other form of death causes. They also wanted to see if different sports can keep people alive from others who don’t workout.

The Curious Case Of Physically Active vs Physically Inactive

The team from UKK Institute For Health Promotion Research In Finland, headed by Dr. Pekka Oja, collected health data from over 80,000 people from Scotland and England for the study. This study spanned for 9 years. There were more women participants with an average age of 52 years for group which works out and the group which does not.

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At the beginning of the study, the participants took a test of their physical activity habits, their medical history and lifestyle, which includes how much they smoke, drink alcohol, and their level of stress.

People who were physically active were asked to describe their exercise routines, like what kind of physical activity they participant in and the intensity of their workout. The list of activities included swimming, cycling, running, football, racquet sports, gymnastics and aerobics. A higher number of people loved swimming, while the others participated in aerobics.

In about 9 years, the researchers checked the number of deaths in these participants. There were around 8,790 death from various causes, and 1,909 deaths from heart diseases, Dr. Oja told CNN. They checked for diseases only when the participants developed diseases after the study began.

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Dr. Oja and his team found out that any kind of exercise is better than no exercise in terms of longevity and health. If the participants were active in any form of exercise, no matter what kind was, the death rate was reduced in them by 28%.

Though, three sports particularly were linked to improvement in health, racquet sports, swimming, and aerobics. They decreased the risk of death from heart disease and other causes.