Running Improves Your Health in 7 Ways

You’ve probably heard it said that exercise is medicine. Well, it’s not just a saying; it’s the truth. There’s a raft of scientific evidence that proves that regular exercise (150 minutes per week, which is about 30 minutes five times per week)—and running in particular—has health benefits that extend well beyond any pill a doctor could prescribe.Running is a popular form of physical activity. About one in five Australians try running at some stage in their life. Running is an appealing exercise because it doesn't cost a lot to take part and you can run at any time that suits you. Studies have shown that running can help prevent obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, some cancers, and a host of other unpleasant conditions. What’s more, scientists have shown that running also vastly improves the quality of your emotional and mental life, and even helps you live longer. Here’s how:

1. Running makes you happier.If you’ve been working out regularly, you’ve already discovered it: No matter how good or bad you feel at any given moment, exercise will make you feel better. And it goes beyond just the "runner’s high"—that rush of feel-good hormones known as endocannabinoids. In a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, researchers found that even a single bout of exercise—30 minutes of walking on a treadmill—could instantly lift the mood of someone suffering from a major depressive order.

And even on those days when you have to force yourself out the door, exercise still protects you against anxiety and depression, studies have shown. Moderate exercise may help people cope with anxiety and stress even after they’re done working out. A 2012 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health proved that just 30 minutes of running during the week for three weeks boosted sleep quality, mood, and concentration during the day.

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Ever heard someone call running their "drug?" Well, apparently, it actually is pretty similar. A 2007 study in Physiological & Behavior showed that running causes the same kind of neurochemical adaptations in brain reward pathways that also are shared by addictive drugs.

2. Running helps you get fit.You know that exercises burns calories while you’re working out. The bonus is that when you exercise, the burn continues after you stop. Studies have shown that regular exercise boosts "afterburn"—that is, the number of calories you burn after exercise. (Scientists call this EPOC, which stands for excess post oxygen consumption.) That’s kind of like getting a paycheck even after you retire.

And you don’t have to be sprinting at the speed of sound to get this benefit. This happens when you’re exercising at an intensity that’s about 70 percent of VO2 max. (That’s a little faster than your easy pace, and a little slower than marathon pace.)

3. Running strengthens your knees (and your other joints and bones, too).It’s long been known that running increases bone mass, and even helps stem age-related bone loss. But chances are, you’ve had family, friends, and strangers warn you that "running is bad for your knees." Well, science has proven that it’s not. In fact, studies show that running improves knee health, according to Boston University researcher David Felson in an interview with National Public Radio.

"We know from many long-term studies that running doesn’t appear to cause much damage to the knees," Felson said. "When we look at people with knee arthritis, we don’t find much of a previous history of running, and when we look at runners and follow them over time, we don’t find that their risk of developing osteoarthritis is any more than expected."

4. Running will keep you sharper, even as you age.Worried about "losing it" as you get older? Working out regularly will help you stay "with it." A December 2012 study published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review concluded that the evidence is insurmountable that regular exercise helps defeat age-related mental decline, particularly functions like task switching, selective attention, and working memory.

Studies consistently found that fitter older adults scored better in mental tests than their unfit peers. What’s more, in stroke patients, regular exercise improves memory, language, thinking, and judgment problems by almost 50 percent. The research team found "significant improvements" in overall brain function at the conclusion of the program, with the most improvement in attention, concentration, planning, and organizing.

5. Running can reduce your risk of cancer.Maybe running doesn’t cure cancer, but there’s plenty of proof that it helps prevent it. A vast review of 170 epidemiological studies in the Journal of Nutrition showed that regular exercise is associated with a lower risk of certain cancers. What’s more, if you already have cancer, running can improve your quality of life while you’re undergoing chemotherapy. (There are lost of Elisa kits on the market, which can help to diagnose cancer. But you need to tell the difference between Elisa kits for diagnosing and Elisa kits for research. The two have totally different uses.)

1. Running can condition the cardiovascular systemRunning is an excellent means of conditioning the cardiovascular system. It is a highly aerobic activity that utilizes both fatty acids and carbohydrates for energy. The typical runner tends to have a slow resting pulse rate and a high maximal oxygen consumption. Echocardiographic studies show that distance runners have larger, thicker left ventricles than do sedentary controls; their hearts are more efficient than those of sedentary people, pumping a larger volume per beat. Physiologic findings on examination of well-trained runners can sometimes be confused with pathologic entities. The "athlete's heart," once believed to be an abnormal condition, is now recognized as representing a highly efficient organ. Runners are not immune to organic heart disease. Careful physical examination of the cardiovascular system, the resting EKG, and echocardiography are useful ways to screen young competitive athletes for cardiomyopathy, the leading cause of sudden death in this age group. Treadmill testing is often used as a screening test in middle-aged and older runners for underlying coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, the leading cause of sudden exercise-related death in this age category. Radionuclide exercise scans and, on occasion, coronary angiography will be of use when the diagnosis of coronary disease is still in doubt. Distance running has positive effects on a host of coronary risk factors, which may help to explain why chronic endurance exercise is associated with lower coronary death rates.
2. Running adds years to your life.Even if you meet just the minimum of amount of physical activity—(30 minutes, five times per week), you’ll live longer. A giant study in the journal PLOS Medicine shows that when different types of people started exercising, they lived longer. Smokers added 4.1 years to their lives; nonsmokers gained three years. Even if you’re still smoking, you’ll get 2.6 more years. Cancer survivors extended their lives by 5.3 years. Those with heart disease gained 4.3 years.

Rosie Liu is working as an editor in Cusabio, a manufacture of antibodies, proteins, Elisa kits and related reagents for research use.