"Running Can Shorten Your Life!"
Written By Summerside Chiropractic Clinic on December 19, 2016
Since last week was a pretty sombre topic I thought I would share this hilarious headline from a major newspaper. You will know doubt hear this referenced by people calling themselves experts and citing the respected journal "Heart" for it's reference. I used to be really wowed when people could say where the information was from and even quote the edition. "Golly Gee, it must be true!"
There are so many levels to this headline being ludicrous I don't even know where to begin. First they were speaking about running farther than 40 km/week and what they saw was actually diminished gains in longevity after 40 km/week. I know a lot of runners and I only know one (we nick name him Forest, as in Gump, Kory) who runs more than 40km/week. Everyone else is enjoying the physiological benefits of lower weight, lower blood pressure, decreased cholesterol and heightened mood from running.
Secondly, when they compared greater than 40 km/week runners to non-runners they adjusted for things like weight, blood pressure and cholesterol. This means they only compared the runners to non-runners who had similar weight, blood pressure and cholesterol!!! So if someone is a cyclist, hockey player or just has really good genes and therefore has similar health indicators as the 40 km/week runners did not live longer in comparison. Well of course not! Both groups, whether by favorable genetics or similar lifestyles have similarly good outcomes with life expectancy. By adjusting for these health parameters the author is essentially removing the physiological benefits of running from the equation!
We would be naive to think they are this incompetent. They are simply grabbing headlines to improve interest in their journal. These tactics hurt people though! Some couch potatoes will feel comforted and not take action. Same thing has happened with chiropractic at times. People hear a bad "story" about chiropractic so they take dangerous drugs instead. As they say in the business, "if no one bleeds no one reads".
I have no choice but to fight fire with fire; when I tweet about it at "WellnessDoc2" this I will also state that "Runners Die Sooner". More people will click on my website with that Tweet than if I say "Running is Healthy!" from the medical journal, "Dull and Boring But True".
That's it for now, it's time for my run!!
Warm Regards, Dr. D
(November 29, 2012)
Posted In:
Wellness
