There are a
myriad of pyramid schemes and fads telling people when they are going to die.
Smoking, poor diet, and playing frogger with rush hour traffic have been proven
to shorten the lifespan of many a person, and now muscular strength can be
added to the tools used to predict mortality.
An article
published in the journal BMJ examined the relationship between muscular
strength in adolescent males (age 16-19 years) and premature death (death
before the age of 55). The researches used data collected during Swiss military
conscription examinations of 1,194,359 of its young male citizens from 1969 to
1976. During exams subjects would perform a knee extension and hand-grip
strength tests. Data for height, weight, blood pressure, and a psychiatric evaluation
would also be collected. Those subjects were then followed for an average of 24
years through follow-up visits and a cause of death registry. The study found
that muscular strength was just as reliable of a predictor of premature death
as Body Mass Index (BMI) and blood pressure. Interestingly, males with normal
to high muscular strength had a 20% risk reduction before reaching the age of
55. Also, stronger individuals had a 35% risk reduction for cardiovascular
disease and a 20-30% lower risk of dying from suicide.
I cannot even
begin to list the reasons why people should exercise, but fighting off the grim
reaper for a few more years is a pretty good one. This study also lends weight
to the argument that school exercise programs should not be cut. The only way
children and adolescents can strengthen their body is if they’re given the time
and space to exercise. This study can also be used to argue that hand-grip
strength testing could be used as a medical measure for mortality.
Administering a quick and painless hand-grip test could be used to make
lifestyle recommendations that would extend the lives of many. The
proliferation and spread of technology has extended the average lifespan of
humans, but it still has yet to remove us from a world where only the strong
survive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPkd9ZQOtbI
References:
Ortega FB,
Silventoinen K, Tynelius P, Rasmussen F. Muscular strength in male adolescents
and premature death: cohort study of one million participants. BMJ. 345:e7279,
2012.
So you have information for male muscle strength as a predictor for life span, but what would be an equivalent measure for females? I remember from one of our physiology labs that while males generally demonstrate greater levels of muscle strength, females generally show higher levels of muscle fatigue resistance (Wüst 2008). Do you think female muscle fatigue resistance could theoretically be used as a kind of equivalent to male muscle strength when predicting for increased/decreased life expectancy?
ReplyDeleteWüst RCI, Morse CI, de Haan A, Jones DA, Degens H. 2008. Sex differences in contractile properties and fatigue resistance of human skeletal muscle. Experimental Physiology 93(7): 843-850.
Interesting post. I have often heard that aerobic exercise is far better for you than anaerobic exercise. Do you think both would increase life span or would one be predominantly better than the other? Also where do you think body builders fall in this idea, they certainly have huge amounts of muscular strength however, do you think that having too much muscle adversely affects life span?
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