The health benefits of staying active are already well-known. It can help you manage weight, keep blood sugar levels down and reduce risk factors for heart disease.
Now, a new study suggests that regularly playing sports, especially badminton or tennis, is not only healthy but also reduces your risk of death, at any age, by approximately 50%. This is a big scale population study to explore the health benefits of sports in terms of death rate. The study evaluated responses from 80, 306 adults aged 30 and above in England and Scotland, who were surveyed about their health, lifestyle and exercise patterns.
After adjusting factors such as age, sex, weight, smoking habits, alcohol use, education and other forms of exercise besides the named sports, the researchers compared the risk of death among people who took part in a sport to those who didn't. The percentage of reduced risk of death was found to be: 47% for racket（球拍）sports, 28% for swimming and 15% for cycling.
In addition to this, the study didn't find any significant reduction in the risk for sports like running and football. The findings also exposed that over 44% of the participants met the guidelines for the recommended exercise levels to stay fit and healthy, which amounts to 150 minutes of moderate(适度的) physical activity in a week.
Does this mean you stop running or playing football and switch to tennis instead? Every kind of sport and physical activity has different physical, social and mental benefits attached to it. The apparent lack of benefits of running and football could result from several variables that were not taken into account.
Being active helps you feel happier and live longer. So, the most important step is to take part in any kind of sport that you are likely to enjoy and follow in the long term.
