Becoming active in middle age the equivalent of high levels of physical activity through adulthood

In a study published in the British Medical Journal, Lisa Byberg and colleagues from Sweden show that men who take up regular physical activity in their 50s can experience the same benefits as men who have been constantly physically active and that this effect is the equivalent to stopping smoking.

They followed up a cohort of 2205 men who were 50 in 1970 to 1973 and then re-examined them at the age of 60, 70, 77 and 82. They found that the higher the level of physically activity, the lower the mortality rate. However, men who took up physical activity in their early 50s continued to have the same rate of mortality of men with lower levels of physical activity for the first five years after starting exercise. But after ten years of follow up, their increased physical activity was similar to the reduced mortality levels of men who had constant high levels of exercise.

This reduction in mortality was similar to that observed in men who gave up smoking.

Read the full article here http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/338/mar05_2/b688