Sports in Teen Years Yield Lasting Health Benefits

There is clear and abundant evidence regarding the health-promoting effects of regular exercise.  Wei Zheng, from Vanderbilt School of Medicine (Tennessee, USA), and colleagues analyzed data collected on 74,941 Chinese women, ages 40 to 70 years, enrolled in the Shanghai Women’s Health Study.  The subjects were interviewed about lifestyle factors and how much they exercised during their teens, and researchers tracked incidence of deaths during 13 years of follow-up. After adjusting for confounding factors, data analysis revealed that those women who exercised in their teens and as adults were at 20% lower risk of death from all causes, as compared to other women.  Further, those women who participated in team sports in their teen years were at 10% reduced risk of death from all causes.  Observing that:” Adolescent exercise participation, independent of adult exercise, was associated with reduced risk of cancer, [cardiovascular disease], and all-cause mortality,” the study authors write that: “Results support promotion of exercise in adolescence to reduce mortality in later life.”