NATIONWIDE : Study Finds Fitness Erases Risk Factors
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Being physically fit is such a powerful force for health that even smokers with high blood pressure and high cholesterol who are in good aerobic shape tend to live longer than nonsmoking couch potatoes who are otherwise healthy, a study found. A team led by author Steven N. Blair, director of research for the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, studied 25,341 men and 7,080 women who received physicals at the clinic between 1970 and 1989. After an average of 8 1/2 years of follow-up, 601 men and 89 women had died. The one-fifth of men who were least fit were found to be 52% more likely to die over the study period than the two-fifths of men who were most fit.
