By Jim Thornton
If you want to add years to your life and life to your years, it’s time to take the plunge and try water aerobics and swimming.
Think the fountain of youth is a myth? Not so fast. Researchers at the University of South Carolina department of exercise science have uncovered evidence that it may be quite real.
In a long-term study, researchers analyzed health data from 40,547 men between the ages of 20 and 90. At the beginning of the study, each volunteer was assessed on a variety of measures: cholesterol levels, blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, smoking, alcohol use, and exercise habits.
All told, 15,883 of the men reported engaging in no exercise at all. Another 3,746 walked regularly; 20,356 ran; and 562 stayed fit by swimming.
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The researchers followed each group’s respective fate for an average of 13 years. By the end of the study, some 3,386 overall had died.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the greatest toll fell on the sedentary guys, 11 percent of whom had succumbed. Walkers fared better — just under 8 percent died. Runners did better still, with a death rate of 6.6 percent.
The real surprise, however, occurred in the swimmers. Less than 2 percent had died by the study’s end.
Steven Blair, P.E.D., lead researcher of the study, cautions against overstating the results because the number of swimmers in the study was relatively small compared to the other groups. “Swimmers did have the lowest death rate, about 50 percent lower than the other activity groups,” he says. “Still, I’m unwilling to go out on the limb too far and declare that swimming is actually better than running in reducing mortality risk.
“I think the main message,” he continues, “is that swimming appears to have definite survival benefits.”
