Too Much Exercise May Not Be Better Than a Sedentary Lifestyle

jones_supa writes: The importance of exercise has been arriving in spades for geek culture. However, when approaching extremes, a point is reached where vigorous jogging erodes some of the benefits light jogging has over a sedentary lifestyle. "Long-term excessive exercise may be associated with coronary artery calcification, diastolic dysfunction and large artery wall stiffening," wrote lead author Peter Schnohr of Copenhagen's Frederiksberg Hospital in a Danish study (abstract). Although previous research has found that physically active people have at least a 30% lower risk of death compared with inactive people, the ideal amount of exercise remains somewhat uncertain. In this study, strenuous joggers — people who ran faster than 11 km/h for more than 4 hours a week; or who ran faster than 11 km/h for more than 2.5 hours a week with a frequency of more than three times a week — had a mortality rate that is not statistically different from that of the sedentary group. Medical journalist Larry Husten notes that this study, while interesting, should not be taken as the final word on the subject.

Comments

Re:The biggest failure of science:

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is what they do:
1) Set up some null hypothesis of zero correlation between jogging and health, diet and health, etc (probably at least five per study).
2) Measure things until one of the outcomes reaches "statistical significance".
3) Misinterpret this statistical significance to be the probability their theory is true: jogging really does affect health.

Where is the science in that? Do not blame science.