Everyone in the Pool!

It seems that swimming wins over other aerobic forms of exercise, with regard to postponement of death. This emerged from an analysis done by University of South Carolina researchers, which was published last year in the International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education.

Over 40,000 men aged 20 to 90 provided the data. They had full health exams between 1971 and 2003as part of the Aerobic center Longitudinal Study. Statistical analyses were comparing the relative risks of death with different categories of physical activities. Appropriate adjustments were made forage, height and weight (body mass index, or BMI), smoking status, alcohol use, and family history of cardiovascular disease.

Swimmers had lower all-cause mortality risk than men who were sedentary (53% lower), walkers (50% lower), or runners (49% lower). It must be pointed out that these results were obtained in white, well-educated, middle- to upper-class men. Whether they are applicable to other populations is not known; however, there’s no compelling reason to think they would not be.

For many people, swimming as a regular form of aerobic exercise is impracticable. But, if you have the opportunity, swimming can be a welcome change from pounding the treadmill or the pavement, and seems to carry greater cardiovascular benefits, too.