
Any amount of running linked to significantly lower risk of early death - conse_lad
https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/any%e2%80%8c-%e2%80%8camount%e2%80%8c-%e2%80%8cof%e2%80%8c-%e2%80%8crunning%e2%80%8c-%e2%80%8clinked%e2%80%8c-%e2%80%8cto%e2%80%8c-%e2%80%8csignificantly%e2%80%8c-%e2%80%8clower%e2%80%8c-%e2%80%8crisk/
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Ives
An important part:

> This is an observational study, and as such, can’t establish cause. And the
> researchers caution that the number of included studies was small and their
> methods varied considerably, which may have influenced the results.

People who are sick or have other health issues will do very little running,
so correlation and causation and all that.

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MaximumYComb
Similar to how a low BMI has higher death rates than overweight BMI IIRC.
People tend to lose a lot of weight when they are really sick.

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sohkamyung
My preference is to see what the NHS "Behind the Headlines" sites makes of
such studies [1], rather than read press releases.

> The findings support general understanding that physical activity is good
> for health. However, this does not mean that running in itself is necessary
> as an activity. The comparison groups may have included a varied mix of
> those who were sedentary and those who took other forms of activity but just
> did not run.

[1] [https://www.nhs.uk/news/lifestyle-and-exercise/running-
reduc...](https://www.nhs.uk/news/lifestyle-and-exercise/running-reduces-risk-
early-death-study-reports/)

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corporateslave5
Someone more likely to run is also more likely to do a million other healthy
things

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AdrienLemaire
I was skeptic, so I looked at the related paper:
[https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2019/09/25/bjsports-2018-...](https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2019/09/25/bjsports-2018-100493)

It looks like a fairly good systematic review and meta-analysis. Their
"Assessment of study and evidence quality" seems quite comprehensive, and they
filtered out several studies affected by selection bias.

They mention the causation possibility:

> the association between running and mortality may partially be explained by
> assuming that sick participants (who are more likely to die) were less
> likely to participate in running.

Still, even if "running" isn't a direct cause for increase longevity, we can't
rule out that more promotion of running would have positive effects (placebo
effect, have unhealthy people use running as a keystone habit to build other
healthy habits, etc).

What I'd love to see is more meta-analysis like this one for other sports. I
believe that running is known for its orthopedic stress risks, and other
sports like swimming might be seen to deliver the same positive effects as
running, without the negative impacts.

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bensk1
This podcast has an episode on that study, highlighting the constraints:
[https://open.spotify.com/episode/67MXt1VL6BoXt0PW5i6pA0?si=G...](https://open.spotify.com/episode/67MXt1VL6BoXt0PW5i6pA0?si=GWdupcT7QYSyfN5WAE9Y2g)

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easytiger
Medical meta study is becoming increasingly concerning. This is lazy and not
very useful rubbish.

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salex89
I would just take it for what it is. The sample is not that small, and there
can be more things included, like people who run do other things beneficial
for their health. Even so, if somebody smokes and starts running, they might
quit smoking because they want a better breathing pattern and it obstructs
them while running. So might that be attributed to running? Dunno, I'm not an
expert. But I would write this thing off.

I would also like to see data on walking. For example people who walk
regularly more than x kilometers daily (those who go to work by foot) and so
on. Do other activities like the elliptical have the same benefit? I shouldn't
run for any prolonged period because of ankle issues, but I can happily ride
the elliptical for 30-45 minutes. I suppose the answer is yes...

~~~
pizza234
> I would also like to see data on walking. For example people who walk
> regularly more than x kilometers daily (those who go to work by foot) and so
> on. Do other activities like the elliptical have the same benefit? I
> shouldn't run for any prolonged period because of ankle issues, but I can
> happily ride the elliptical for 30-45 minutes. I suppose the answer is
> yes...

I've been doing all sorts of cardio machines and fitness experiments, and I
personally consider elliptical a meaningful sport activity (although low-
effort for my personal conditioning).

Walking is very low effort overall on the body musculature and cardiovascular
conditioning.

In the big picture, my biggest critique to walking is that it's associated to
a checklist mindset: "I've done my 1 hour walk for today and I'm done", while
doing "real" physical activities implies a different attitude - as you wrote,
"people who run do other things beneficial for their health".

Entering the anecdata field, I've found that my body seems to have a threshold
for metabolic stimulation - with 5-times/week low-effort 20-minutes runs (+2
weight sessions), I struggle to get to low bodyfat percentages; I need higher
effort and slightly longer sessions.

While this is a strictly individual sample, I think finding one's own impact
of different activity on their body is the foundation for real effect. Maybe
walking works for a handful of people on earth :-)

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ngcc_hk
Need multiple regression analysis to see how individual factor contributes. If
running is there many others may be excluded but it is the excluded one might
explain more.

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buboard
any amount of running already excludes all the people who can't run. how do
they control for that?

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jakeogh
Is it supposed to be an independent variable? Seems given that people who can
run are already over the hump by default.

~~~
buboard
This is a meta-analysis of many other studies of varying quality. There are
many limitations, including the inclusion of a study that did not show effect
, exclusion of people with heart disease problems etc. They are described in
their discussion section here:
[https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2019/09/25/bjsports-2018-...](https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2019/09/25/bjsports-2018-100493)

this seems to put a few grains of salt in this all-or-none preclamation

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starpilot
Hey, has anyone read the book Born to Run?

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tajd
Yeah - I really enjoyed it. Takes a somewhat more humanities based approach
towards describing the history and understanding the relevance of running for
humans. It inspired me to get out there and put some more miles in.

