This Simple Fitness Test Can Help Predict If You’ll Die Early

Having good aerobic capacity is essential for athletes, enabling them to go harder and longer during their workouts. But there’s another reason being aerobically fit is important: It may even decrease your risk of death from heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses, according to researchers out of Spain.

In the study, which was presented at the European Society of Cardiology’s EuroEcho-Imaging 2018, researchers analyzed 12,615 participants ages 18 to 91 with known or suspected coronary artery disease. The participants underwent a treadmill exercise echocardiography stress test, where they either walked or ran until the point of exhaustion.

The results of the stress test were measured in metabolic equivalents (METs), or the energy cost of an activity (One MET is the equivalent of sitting quietly, and six or more METs are the equivalent of doing strenuous activities like running or cycling).

In order to perform well on the stress test, participants had to achieve 10 METs—the equivalent of being able to climb three or four flights of stairs quickly without having to stop, or running at 6.5 miles per hour (a pace just a bit slower than a 9:30-mile), according to cardiologist Jesús Peteiro-Vázquez, M.D., lead author of the study.

“Four flights of stairs represents approximately 20 meters of distance, and the usual incline is 30 to 35 percent,” he told Runner’s World. “Therefore, a person able to go up four flights of stairs in, let’s say, 45 to 55 seconds would be also able to achieve 10 METs.”

Researchers then divided participants into two groups: Those who reached 10 METs or more were labeled with “good functional capacity,” and those who couldn’t make it to 10 METs were labeled with “poor functional capacity.”

Upon following up with the participants almost five years later, the researchers found that those in the poor functional fitness group were more likely to die from cardiovascular disease, cancer, or other illnesses. In fact, people in the poor fitness group were three times as likely to die from cardiovascular disease and nearly twice as likely to die from cancer during that five-year period than those in the good fitness group.

And the fitter the participants were during the test, the more protective the effects seemed to be: Each MET achieved after that 10-mark was associated with a 9 percent, 9 percent, and 4 percent decreased risk of each type of disease, respectively.

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“Our results add to the common knowledge about the benefits of being fit,” Petiero-Vázquez said. “Physical activity has a positive effect on blood pressure and lipids, and therefore in the cardiovascular system. It also reduces inflammation.”

That’s important, since inflammation has been implicated as a shared factor in the development of some cancers and heart disease.

So keep logging your miles—long runs, track workouts, or even whatever you can fit in during your lunch break—to help reduce your risk of an early death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

From: Runner’s World US

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