Runners Live Longer

If you have read any of my previous posts, you know I love to run.

I love the challenge. Even after running thousands of miles, it still isn't "easy".

I love the health benefits. When I am training for a race, I am in the best shape of my life and have more energy than any other time.

Now I know I am going to live longer too.

That's right, in a study done at Stanford University researchers began studying 538 middle-aged runners back in the 1980s.

At the time, critics were convinced, as many are still today, that runners would suffer serious injuries and predicted an epidemic of knee replacements.

21 years of research show quite the opposite is true.

Data from the Stanford study, which was recently published in two peer-reviewed journals, show that the runners did not have higher rates of osteoarthritis and total knee replacements.

And the onset of disabilities appeared 12 to 16 years later in the runners' group vs. the nonrunners'.

That's huge; imagine living independently or delaying the use of a cane for an extra decade or more.

There were also half as many deaths in the runners' group than in the nonrunners' during the study.

So yes, running can be abusive to the body, but the body was also made to run.

It was not made to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours, have a 1 hour commute each way in a car and sit in front of t.v. for 3 hours before going to bed to do it all over again the next day.

That is what is truly dangerous to the body.