More Intense Exercise May Extend Life

Working up more of a sweat when you exercise may help you live longer, two new studies find. And for most people more vigorous exercise appears to be safe, a third study suggests. All of the studies focused on middle-aged or older adults. One included more than 204,000 people. Researchers kept track of them for more than 6 years. They were divided into groups based on how much of their exercise was vigorous, such as running, compared with moderate activity, such as brisk walking. Those who said up to 30% of their exercise was vigorous were 9% less likely to die during the study than those who did no vigorous activity. The death rate was 13% lower for those who did more than 30% vigorous exercise. A second study had similar results. The journal JAMA Internal Medicine published both of them. The journal Circulation published the third study, which looked at cardiac arrest risk.