There is no doubt that sport is good for health – regular physical activity reduces the risk of death, allows the brain to stay young longer, and generally strengthens the body. However, there is an opinion that sport is useful if done in moderation. Professional athletes, for example, those who participate in the Olympic Games, have to work, as they say, to the point of exhaustion. However, as a recent study has shown, even extreme physical activity can be useful, although only for a trained person.
Contents
- 1 Is professional sports really harmful?
- 2 Which athletes have a high life expectancy?
- 3 Olympic runners live longer than other people?
- 4 Why do professional athletes live longer than ordinary people?
Is professional sports really harmful?
Scientists have not yet come to a clear opinion on how useful or harmful it is to engage in sports professionally, subjecting the body to constant excessive loads. For a long time, it was believed that sports such as marathons, endurance cycling, triathlons and other similar disciplines put a lot of strain on the heart, which increases the risk of early death. Therefore, to improve health, it is not necessary to do physical exercises for a long time and intensively.
However, recently some scientists have come to a different opinion. Of course, if a person who leads a sedentary lifestyle begins to subject himself to excessive stress, this will have an extremely negative impact on his health and may even lead to sudden death. But for experienced athletes who train constantly, the consequences can be completely different.
Which athletes have a high life expectancy
The assumption that even professional sports with colossal loads on the body can be useful has been confirmed by some studies. For example, in 2022, Harvard University researchers found that professional athletes have a 30% lower risk of death than people who lead a sedentary lifestyle, and 10% lower than people who exercise moderately.
Another study, published in the journal Plos One, followed French Olympic rowers for 100 years and found that they lived longer, with a particularly reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
An equally interesting study was published in the BMJ journal — it showed that all men and women in the United States who have ever participated in the Olympic Games live on average 5 years longer than their peers. In 2011, scientists also found that cyclists who participated in the Tour de France had a life expectancy that was 17% longer than other people. They have a reduced risk of dying from cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Olympic runners live longer than other people
In a recent study, the results of which were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, scientists found out how professional sprinting affects life expectancy. Why did scientists pay attention to this particular sport?
The fact is that in their work, the authors analyzed data from 200 runners who ran a mile in less than 4 minutes in the 50s, 60s and 70s. As the researchers themselves explain, these athletes represent a unique group of people, since they load several systems of the body to the maximum at once — respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal.
To achieve high running speeds, professional athletes train every week – they run a total of more than 120 km, and the training lasts about 10 hours. At first glance, this may not seem like much, but keep in mind that we are talking about speed running. Therefore, their body is subjected to truly extreme stress.
However, the study found that even these athletes live an average of 5 years longer than their peers. That is, the result correlates with the study mentioned above, according to which all Olympic athletes live 5 years longer.
Why do professional athletes live longer than ordinary people
From all of the above, we can conclude that even extreme sports are good for health if a person is physically prepared. Moreover, it seems that the type of sport does not matter.
However, scientists are not sure that the longevity of athletes is associated solely with their lifestyle. Agree, not every person, even those involved in sports, can become an Olympic athlete. Therefore, it is quite possible that successful athletes have good genetic heredity associated with high life expectancy.
However, even if genetics do play a certain role, the positive effect of sports on the body cannot be denied. As mentioned above, scientists have found that the risk of death in athletes is often reduced due to low rates of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. As is known, an active lifestyle primarily reduces the risk of developing these diseases.
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Another interesting observation of scientists is that the difference in life expectancy between athletes and ordinary people in the 60s was greater than in later years. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the life expectancy of the population has increased significantly over the past 50 years. And the issue here is most likely not in sports, but in the development of medicine.