Monday 18th September 2017 - being unfit is life threatening

A study, published in the Journal of American Medical Association, concluded:

"low fitness is as important as diabetes, cholesterol level, hypertension and smoking on the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and all-causes in normal weight, overweight and obese."

The study was over 25 years in the United States, and covered over 25000 men.

It concluded:

"From a population perspective, cardiovascular disease carried the highest risk of death in normal-weight men, and cardiovascular disease and low fitness were comparable risks in overweight and obese men. To be more specific, 27% of obese men died of all-causes because of cardiovascular disease and 44% died because they were unfit. These figures show the huge importance of physical activity. Furthermore, physical activity effects the other risk factors: it reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension and lowers cholesterol levels. All in all, a powerful article."

A different study, published in Preventative Cardiology came up with a similar conclusion:

"No one was surprised when the data showed that having good cardiovascular fitness helped the men live longer. What was shocking, though, was just how much it helped. The men with the lowest VO2 max scores (so, the least fit) were 21 percent more likely to die prematurely than those of average fitness, and had a 42 percent higher risk of dying early than the men who were the most fit. In fact, the effect of exercise on life span was so great that it ranked above conditions like high blood pressure or cholesterol; the only thing that increased the risk of dying more than sitting was smoking"