Exercise to live longer

Seniors who were most active, regardless of whether they exercised, were nearly 70 percent less likely to die during the six-year study period than those who were most sedentary, the study found. The results shed new light on how much exercise is needed to maintain good health, according to Deseret News.

It doesn't have to be 20 minutes a day of aerobic exercise - or even be exercise. It can be household chores, yardwork, child care, walking - anything that expends energy.

They gave 302 adults, whose average age was 75, a dose of water made of heavier-than-normal isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen, which was absorbed into their tissues and then slowly released.

The oxygen left the body as carbon dioxide, which is produced with activity. The researchers returned two weeks later and measured the amount of labeled oxygen in each person. The less there was, the more active the person had been, Washington post reports.

The researchers followed the subjects for six years. Over that period, 12 percent of people in the one-third of the group who were most active subjects died. In the one-third with midrange activity, 18 percent died. In the least active third, 25 percent died.

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