Health Benefits of Running

A long-term study from the Stanford School of Medicine tracked a group of aging runners for over 20 years. The study found that compared to a group of aging non-runners, the group of elderly runners had fewer disabilities, had a longer span of active life and were about half as likely to die early deaths. The researchers were surprised to also find that the health gap between runners and non-runners grew bigger with time. While the researchers assumed that running would affect the risk of cardiovascular death, runners also experienced fewer early deaths from cancer, neurological conditions and infections among other causes.