Forget jumping jacks and treadmills. Just doing household chores and other
mundane activities of daily living is enough to help older adults live longer,
new research suggests.
Elderly couch potatoes were much more likely to die within about six years
than those whose lives included regular activity no more strenuous than washing
dishes, vacuuming, gardening and climbing stairs, according to the study of
adults aged 72 to 80.
About 12 percent of people with the highest amount of daily activity died
during the six-year follow-up, compared with nearly 25 percent of the least
active participants. The government-funded study appears in Wednesday's Journal
of the American Medical Association.
"This is a monumental study," said Dr. Andrew Goldberg, a geriatrics expert
who was not involved in the research. "They used state-of-the-art methodology to
answer a very important question, which is how important is it to remain
physically active."
The highest activity level studied "translates into a 50 percent reduction in
mortality. That's really big," said Goldberg, a University of Maryland professor
and director of geriatric research at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical
Center.
The most active among the 302 adults studied didn't even do much, if any,
rigorous exercise. But they did burn about 1,000 calories daily through
activity, or about 600 more than the least active.
For someone weighing 170 pounds, roughly the study's average body weight,
that would equal about 3 1/2 hours of daily activity including yard work and
household chores, versus less than two hours of similar activity for the least
active.
The groups had similar amounts of age-related illness including diabetes,
arthritis and cardiovascular disease, which affected more than half the study
participants.
The most active were more likely to work for pay and to climb two or more
flights of stairs daily, but surprisingly didn't do higher amounts of
traditional exercise, said lead author Todd Manini, a scientist at the National
Institute on Aging.
Jean Serpico, 75, of Arlington Heights, Ill., wasn't part of the research but
has habits similar to the most active participants in the study. She climbs
stairs daily to her second-floor condo, does frequent volunteer work, enjoys
household chores, baking, shopping and helping her elderly neighbors.
"I do all that to keep busy. I just can't sit and look out the window,"
Serpico said. "I just keep active. I think it keeps me going."
The study results don't mean that older adults who engage in a more intense
fitness regimen should stop, or that they won't gain perhaps even greater health
benefits from it, the researchers said. Rather, they said, the study should be
encouraging for those intimidated by traditional exercise, illustrating that
activity doesn't have to be strenuous to be beneficial.
Manini said it is uncertain whether the results would apply to younger
people.
The researchers used a laboratory technique that some consider the gold
standard of measuring expended energy and more reliable than self-reported
activity levels, although they also questioned participants about their habits.
Participants drank specially formulated water that is expelled from the body
as carbon dioxide, which is a direct measure of energy use. For the next two
weeks, they went about their usual activities. Fourteen days later, researchers
measured the amount of special water remaining in the body. The difference
between the levels on the first and 14th day, factoring in resting metabolic
rate, determined how much energy had been expended through activity.
Participants were then followed for up to about eight years.
Improved activity-related cardiac fitness and well-being from feeling
socially connected through work or volunteering might explain why active people
lived longer, although the study didn't measure those effects, said co-author
Dr. James Everhart of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and
Kidney Diseases.
Dr. Sandra Selikson, a geriatrics specialist at Montefiore Medical Center in
New York, said the results would help her encourage her older patients.
"You don't have to be motivated to do a mini-triathalon or a 10K. Just being
active ... even benefited people who had medical problems," Selikson said. "Even
doing something is better than nothing."
