A groundbreaking 30-year study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä has challenged conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between exercise and longevity. Your Healthy News noted that researchers have discovered that moderate physical activity, rather than high-intensity exercise, yields the most significant benefits in reducing mortality.
The study, published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, analysed data from 22,750 twins born before 1958, tracking their leisure-time physical activity over decades and monitoring mortality rates until 2020. Led by Anna Kankaanpää, a postdoctoral researcher at the Gerontology Research Center (GEREC), the research revealed a surprising finding: moderate exercise reduced mortality by 7% compared to sedentary individuals. However, exceeding moderate activity levels did not provide any further reduction in mortality risk.
Challenging Established Guidelines
The research team categorised participants into four groups: sedentary, moderately active, active, and highly active, based on metabolic equivalents. They found that while moderate activity showed a clear benefit, adhering to World Health Organisation exercise guidelines (150-300 minutes of moderate or 75-150 minutes of vigorous activity per week) did not guarantee a reduction in mortality or alter genetic disease risk.
“In our studies, we aimed to account for various sources of biases, and combined with the long follow-up period, we could not confirm that adhering to physical activity guidelines mitigates genetic cardiovascular disease risk or causally reduces mortality,” stated Laura Joensuu, a postdoctoral researcher at GEREC, in a press release.
U-Shaped Relationship with Biological Aging
Furthermore, a subset of twins who provided blood samples revealed a U-shaped relationship between physical activity and biological aging. Both the sedentary and highly active groups exhibited older biological ages compared to the moderately active group. Notably, the highly active group was, on average, 1.2 years biologically older than the moderately active group and 1.6 years older than the active group.
“Biological aging was accelerated in those who exercised the least and the most,” explained Elina Sillanpää, professor at GEREC and corresponding author of the study.
Complex Interactions and Study Limitations
The researchers acknowledged the limitations of observational data, highlighting the potential influence of confounding factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and underlying pre-disease states.
“An underlying pre-disease state can limit physical activity and ultimately lead to death, not the lack of exercise itself,” Sillanpää noted.
The study suggests that the relationship between physical activity and mortality is complex, influenced by multiple interacting factors. The apparent association between leisure-time physical activity and lower mortality may reflect overall good health and lifestyle rather than exercise alone.
