San Francisco, California — The results of a large analysis show a reduction in mortality among elderly patients who maintained high levels of aerobic fitness, including benefits in individuals as old as aged 93 years.
"The point here is that it doesn't matter what age you are, you have to maintain a certain amount of fitness because the body goes into hibernation if it thinks it isn't needed anymore," senior investigator Dr Peter Kokkinos (VA Medical Center, Washington, DC) told heartwire . "We know this from broken limbs and from astronauts returning from space--if you don't use it, you're going to lose it."
Presenting the results here at the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) 2013 Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, CA, Kokkinos said that while age is associated with declines in muscle mass, strength, endurance, and aerobic fitness, older individuals respond well to exercise and exercise could play a role in preventing these age-related declines.
Given that hypertension increases in prevalence as adults age, the researchers, led by Dr Michael Doumas (VA Medical Center) examined the benefits of exercise in 2077 hypertensive men 70 years of age and older. All patients underwent routine exercise tolerance testing, and their peak workload was estimated in metabolic equivalents (METs). Of the participating men, 685 were classified as having low levels of aerobic fitness (METs ≤4.5), 786 had moderate levels of aerobic fitness (METs 4.6-6.5), and 606 had high levels of aerobic fitness (METs > 6.5).
For every 1-MET increase in exercise capacity, the risk of all-cause mortality was reduced by 8% (hazard ratio (HR) 0.92; p < 0.001). Overall, mortality was 15% lower among those with moderate levels of aerobic fitness (HR 0.85; p=0.024) and 37% lower among those with high levels of aerobic fitness (HR 0.63; p < 0.001) compared with the low-fitness group. Average follow-up in the study was nine years.
To heartwire , Kokkinos said that researchers are only now beginning to understand how the body's metabolism shuts down when it is no longer active. Computer work and nonmanual labor, which constitutes a large portion of the US workforce, means many individuals sit for long periods of time. As documented in a recent Women's Health Initiative (WHI) analysis, prolonged sitting has negative cardiometabolic effects, which are risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in their own right.
"The main message is that we need to be active," said Kokkinos. "The patients in this study were 70 to 93 years old. We don't have to do a lot to stay healthy, but we have to do something. You don't have to run a marathon--a brisk walk is all you need. As humans, we were designed to do work."