Longevity and Exercise: Moderate Wins, More Isn’t Better

Can long-term physical activity influence mortality and biological aging? Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä in Jyväskylä, Finland, set out to answer this question and uncovered a surprising finding: Moderate physical activity had the most significant positive effect on longevity, reducing mortality by 7% over a 3src-year period.

Interestingly, higher levels of physical activity did not confer additional mortality benefits. The study was published in the European Journal of Epidemiology.

3src-Year Twin Study

The study, led by Anna Kankaanpää, postdoctoral researcher at the Gerontology Research Center (GEREC) at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, examined 22,75src twins born before 1958. Data on leisure-time physical activity were collected from participants in 1975, 1981, and 199src, and mortality follow-up was conducted until 2src2src.

The researchers also investigated how physical activity influences biological aging, measured using epigenetic “clocks,” and its impact on existing risk for genetic disease.

Participants were divided into four groups based on their activity levels using a validated questionnaire that measured metabolic equivalents in h/d: Sedentary, moderately active, active, and highly active. Physical activity was assessed over a 15-year period, and mortality rates were evaluated after 3src years of follow-up.

For a subset of twins, blood samples were collected to assess biological aging using epigenetic “clocks” based on changes in DNA methylation. Genetic data were available for 4897 twins.

Exercise Guidelines — No Mortality Guarantee

The World Health Organization recommends 15src-3srcsrc minutes of moderate or 75-15src minutes of vigorous physical activity per week. The researchers used these recommendations to investigate their effects on mortality and the risk for genetic diseases.

However, adherence to these recommendations does not reduce mortality or alter the risk for genetic disease. Among twin pairs in which one twin followed the guidelines for 15 years and the other did not, there was no significant difference in mortality.

The researchers suggested that potential biases in observational studies may have led to a positive association between physical activity and mortality risk. Despite accounting for various potential confounding factors and the long follow-up period, this study did not confirm this association.

“In our studies, we aimed to account for various sources of biases, and combined with the long follow-up period, we could not confirm that adhering to physical activity guidelines mitigates genetic cardiovascular disease risk or causally reduces mortal,” said study co-author Laura Joensuu, postdoctoral researcher at GEREC, in a press release.

U-Shaped Link

In a subset of twins who provided blood samples, the researchers observed a U-shaped relationship between leisure-time physical activity and biological aging. Both the sedentary and highly active groups were biologically older than the moderately active group.

Even after adjusting for various lifestyle factors, the highly active group was, on average, 1.2 years biologically older than the moderately active group and 1.6 years older than the active group.

“Biological aging was accelerated in those who exercised the least and the most,” said the study’s corresponding author Elina Sillanpää, professor at GEREC.

As the researchers could not establish a significant link between long-term physical activity and slower biological aging, they concluded that biological age may not directly influence the relationship between physical activity and reduced mortality.

Study Limitations

The researchers acknowledged the limitations of observational data, which are likely to be biased by various lifestyle factors, such as smoking or alcohol consumption.

“An underlying pre-disease state can limit physical activity and ultimately lead to death, not the lack of exercise itself,” said Sillanpää. This could distort the short-term association between physical activity and mortality.

Complex Lifestyle Interactions

These findings indicate that the relationship between physical activity and overall mortality is influenced by multiple interacting factors. The apparent association between leisure-time physical activity and lower mortality may reflect the participants’ overall good health and lifestyle.

The researchers speculated that an overall healthy lifestyle may have a more positive effect on biological age than the maintenance of high levels of physical activity alone.

This story was translated from Medscape’s German edition using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.