Harvard study supports case for exercise

Press, 19 April 1986, Page 27

Harvard study supports case for exercise

NZPA-AP Boston A 16-year study of Harvard graduates supports the popular idea that regular exercise adds years to people’s lives. The study found that moderate exercise that bums up 2000 calories a week can significantly reduce people’s risk of death.

There is widespread and long-standing popular belief that adequate physical exercise is necessary to preserve life and its desirable qualities into old age, the researchers wrote. The present study adds new evidence to support this view.

The researchers found that men who used up at least 2000 calories a week through exercise had a 28 per cent lower death rate than did less active men during the 16-year followup period. In their calculations,

walking seven city blocks used up 56 calories, climbing 70 stairs used 28 calories, light exercise uses five calories a minute and vigorous exercise used 10 calories a minute. The research was conducted on 16,936 Harvard graduates between the ages of 35 and 74. The study was directed by Ralph Paffenbarger, Jun., of Stanford University School of Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health. It was published in the “New England Journal of Medicine.” Among other findings, exercise seemed to make people live longer even when such factors as smoking, high blood pressure and obesity were taken' Into account; and men whose parents both died before age 65 had a 29 per cent higher risk of death than those whose parents lived past 65.