Stair Climbing as an Example of Physical Activity Correlated with Reduced Mortality Risk
While researchers here focus specifically on stair climbing as a form of physical activity to compare against risk of mortality in later life, there are any number of other studies that focus on activity more generally, or on other forms of moderate to vigorous exercise. The consensus across epidemiological studies is that physical activity correlates with reduced mortality. Animal studies have been used to demonstrate that the exercise in fact causes that reduced mortality, and it is reasonable to consider that the same is true in humans.
Cardiovascular disease is largely preventable through actions like exercise. However, more than one in four adults worldwide do not meet recommended levels of physical activity. Stair climbing is a practical and easily accessible form of physical activity which is often overlooked. This study investigated whether climbing stairs, as a form of physical activity, could play a role in reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease and premature death.
The authors collected the best available evidence on the topic and conducted a meta-analysis. Studies were included regardless of the number of flights of stairs and the speed of climbing. There were nine studies with 480,479 participants in the final analysis. The study population included both healthy participants and those with a previous history of heart attack or peripheral arterial disease. Ages ranged from 35 to 84 years old and 53% of participants were women.
Compared with not climbing stairs, stair climbing was associated with a 24% reduced risk of dying from any cause and a 39% lower likelihood of dying from cardiovascular disease. Stair climbing was also linked with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease including heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.
I've been doing stair climbing at my gym foryears. I love running but it actually seems stair climbing is easier. But, definitely sweating after my stair climbing routine. Been wanting to get the machine for the house, but they are expensive and quite heavy to maneuver.
Yea, happy to see this article come out.
I don't understand why older people avoid using stairs in their homes ( we have them), if you don't use it, you lose it.
I suppose that I can become unfairly agitated at those who consider exercise as some kind of grudging misery, relentlessly undertaken at too frequent intervals, to maintain various functionality, when One would rather be watching Premier League football at the Pub - fine.
Perhaps it is better to consider what kind of functionality One wants to maintain and undertake those activities to maximize that, realizing the use, deterioration, and cross-benefit that activity provides - i.e. running on hard concrete at 65+ for 3+ miles daily likely reduces the service life of various aspects of your knee such as cartilage, whereas swimming, a less micro-trauma-type activity, may reduce that at lessened cardio-vascular benefit.
It's an optimization problem and the pros & cons - time, benefit, risk, etc., vary considerably.
The resources for optimizing strength, cardiovascular health, full body functionality, pain relief, and flexibility are vast and available everywhere -and- i think it is entirely reasonable to pursue only those regimes that optimize life span and the functionality of those systems that are crucial to your own lifestyle preferences - which I would argue, is far less than the 4+ days a week at 1.5 hours per day that many claim; earlier the better. It is also further reasonable to assume that with certain increases in activity 'beyond-health' benefits accrue which likely lead to extended health-span, but with possible diminishing returns and other side-effects at certain excessive levels. As with nutrition, find your bliss.
As with maintaining your physical faculties, keeping up your mental faculties requires such maintenance. One can choose not to read, speak, and listen to intelligent, challenging content at the risk of diminishing faculty - on top of other brain damaging activities and circumstances.
Point: customizing your approach to health, with life extension in mind, is the most individual of all undertaking.
You have similar confounding healthy user biases with exercise epidemiology studies that you do with diet epidemiology studies. But the logic concerning exercise being beneficial is far more clear cut. Exercise > Diet imo.
Robert, try using the inclined treadmill at the gym. I am old enough now that the inclined treadmill at 3.7 or 3.8 mph walk set at 9% incline gives me a good workout. Above 9% incline the strike angle gets very perverse. Home treadmills are cheaper than home stair climbers.
@JohnD: Agreed: "... logic concerning exercise being beneficial is far more clear cut..."
However -> "...Confounding bias: A systematic distortion in the measure of association between exposure and the health outcome caused by mixing the effect of the exposure of primary interest with extraneous risk factors...", as you may have indicated, appears less clear with some activities/ behaviours.
On a separate topic: I am surprised that I cannot easily find a widely available, well-reviewed, informative 'Longevity App' - perhaps a AppleNews-type digest of breaking developments, current studies, links to accepted health/ diet/ interventions as they match with the user's life, upcoming events, and connections to others' with similar interests - which may be a bit more interactive than a blog -and- i know less and less people who use a computer browser for news.
@Jer: "... cannot easily find a ... 'Longevity App'.."
The Apple Health App is quite an informative, interactive, data-gathering, tip-granting, database-building, real-time assessment (through the watch) program. It appears much under-utilized and under-appreciated, but could theoretically include longevity-based functionality; when used by a dedicated user-base...
Now if we could reference or compare 'longevity through fitness/diet' 'enthusiasts' data such as with Bryan Johnson on a regular basis with such an App.
@John,
When I want to do cardio at home ( I hit gym 2 to 3 times per week ( it's over 2 hours away), but I don't work), I've done 4.4 mph at 8% incline for 30 minutes. Yea, sweating alot, but still prefer stair climber which I do at gym along with running. Difficult running at home, we're 6000 feet above sea level.
Greatly appreciate your input John. Yes, getting up tgrre in Incline can be intense.
I live in an eleven story building. There is a fitness room on the second floor. Stair exercise comes easy. There are railings on both sides.
The great thing while developing a routine is that you can "bail-out" anytime and take the elevator.
I live on the tenth floor and 'do the stairs' almost every day. It's a great gauge for knowing your condition.