Exercise reduces pain in old age

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

If people exercise regularly they experience less muscle and joint pain in old age, says a new study.
We already know how beneficial exercise is for your health. Now researchers at Stanford University say that physical activity can help protect against pain in older age. They looked at a group of runners and a group of controls. They followed them up for 14 years and collected information each year on health status, exercise and history of injury.

The runners took between 355 and 2,119 minutes of exercise a week. The controls took significantly less exercise. Both groups reported an increase in pain over time. But the runners experienced about 25 per cent less pain. This was despite the fact that the runners experienced more fractures than the control group. Clearly keeping fit gives you the potential to avoid older age aches and pains.

Source
Arthritis Research & Therapy September 2005

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