A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that engaging in physical activity at any point in adulthood can reduce one’s risk of death from any cause, especially cardiovascular disease. The analysis of 85 studies found that people who engage in physical activity on a regular basis have a 30-40% reduced risk of death, while those who transition to a more active lifestyle on a serious basis later in life have a 20-25% reduction in risk of death.

In conclusion, the authors reported these findings suggest that if persons decided to pursue a physical activity lifestyle at some point along the adult continuum may be able to delay death, and that it is never too late to start. At the present time, the recommendations are for adults to engage in 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity or 75-150 minutes vigorous-intensity physical activity on a weekly basis or some combination of moderate and vigorous-intensity physical activity.

Although the authors explained that all the reports used to inform this advice were based on the best available evidence, most of the authors of the reports only took the measurements of physical activity one time, which probably masked the potential effect of changes of activity patterns in adulthood.

Thus, the researchers approached the question of whether different patterns of physical activity and total amounts of activity accumulated over an adult lifetime were associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality, and, specifically, mortality related to cardiovascular disease and cancer.

To do this, they identified research databases of relevant studies that had measured physical activity on two or more occasions, and included in their review.

Consistently active people (32 studies) had about a 30 – 40% lower risk for dying from all causes, while those who increased their physical activity levels (21 studies) from below the recommended level had a 20 – 25% lower risk for dying from all causes.

In particular, participants who transitioned from being physically inactive to active had a 22% lower risk of dying from any cause than those who continued to be physically inactive, and those who progressed from inactive to increased time of leisure physical activity had a risk 27% lower for dying from any cause.

By contrast, replacing an active lifestyle with an inactive lifestyle was not associated with lower risk of death from all causes.

Overall, the associations observed between a high level of physical activity and a lower risk of death were stronger for cardiovascular disease than cancer.

Compared to participants who were consistently inactive over time, those who were consistently active, in general, or only in leisure time were approximately 40% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and 25% less likely to die from cancer.

But overall, the evidence for the associations between patterns of physical activity and death from a specific cause remained inconclusive, particularly from cancer.

The combined data indicated that those who were consistently active or who became active had a lower risk of death from any cause and death from cardiovascular disease, when meeting the recommended weekly levels of physical activity.

But being consistently physically active and accumulating more than the minimum recommended amount of weekly moderate to vigorous intensity exercise was only associated with a small additional health benefit in terms of risk reduction.

However, maintaining or increasing physical activity at levels below the recommended weekly guideline, was associated with meaningful health benefits, indicating that some physical activity will always be better than no activity, the researchers said.

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