IUBio

Live shortening effects of sport

Scott Selby Med-Hem selby at lenti.med.umn.edu
Fri Feb 9 09:44:03 EST 1996


H.O.van.den.Berg at Inter.NL.net wrote:

[lots of false conjecture deleted]

: So I think it's reasonable to assume that sports progresses the
: aging process. Probably even a lot of "lean muscle tissue"
: does the same (consuming more oxygen).

: Is muscle tissue and sports activity the reason for the fact
: that women live longer ?

: Yes, I know about the finish study of ski-sportsmen. But they were
: compared to their collegue sports, not a control group of couch
: potatoes.

: And if we pay this price for sports, what sport would give 
: the best physical results for the lowes oxygen price ?

You have ignored numerous human studies where sedentary lifestyles 
coincide with increased risk for heart disease, stroke, etc. etc. and a 
study done on rowers in the late 70's that showed that these athletes 
(many of whom continued their sport after college) outlived there 
classmates by 10-12 years.

This physiobabble is the same thing sighted by trash newspapers every so 
often about the deleterious effects of exercise.  What you fail to 
recognize is that in evolutionary terms, our vigorous types are probably 
very sedentary compared to the gathering/hunting lifestyle of prehistoric 
peoples.

Drawing parallels between fruit flys and human behaviour is ludicrous.  
Paralysis in humans (the ultimate in non-activity) results in a decrease 
in life-span of 5-20 years depending on the extend of injury.  While this 
is complicated by the other health issues involved in spinal cord injury, 
the 200% figure you sight in fruit flies should outweigh the deleterious 
effects of spinal cord injury.  While my reasoning in this argument is 
ridiculous, at best, it shows the danger of taking wildly disperate 
species studies and drawing conclusions about supposed health benefits or 
deleterious effects.

I'll continue my fitness and diet regimes, and you just lay around the 
house.  I promise to come to your funeral and NOT say, "I told you so!"




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