跑步6个月，寿命多3年

If you think running is a waste of time, you might want to reconsider. A new study suggests that one hour of running could elongate your life by nearly seven hours, earning you more time than you spend on the activity.

如果你认为跑步是一件浪费生命的事情，看完这篇文章后你该重新考虑一下了。有研究表明，一小时的跑步可以延长七个小时的生命，也就意味着，你在运动上赚的时间比你消耗的更多。

The review, recently published in Progress in Cardiovascular Disease, is a followup to a different study from the Cooper Institute a few years back. The previous research suggested that even small amounts of running each day could increase life span, but the data left a lot of questions unanswered, which this followup review sought to answer. Most notably, researchers wanted to know how much time you had to put into cardio-heavy activity to get time out of it. For example, to extend your life by an hour, would you have to run for an hour? If so, that would hardly seem worth it to most people.

几年前，由库伯实验室(Cooper Institute)做出的研究表明，每天进行少量的运动就可以延长生命，但实验的数据存在着很多问题没有被回答。研究人员想知道你必须花多少时间进行有氧运动才能获得延长的生命。比如，为了延长一小时生命，你需要运动超过一小时么?如果答案是正确的，那对于大多数人来说这是得不偿失的。一篇最近发表在心血管疾病进展期刊上的报告对这些问题进行了解答。

Read moreBut after analyzing the data, they found something encouraging for all kinds of runners, veteran or beginner. Not only did consistent running seem to drop the risk of premature death by almost 40%, the activity seemed to statistically return more time to runner’s lives than it consumed. Say you ran for about two hours every week (which is less than 20 minutes every day). Over the next 40 years you’d spend less than six months of that time doing the activity, but, according to the review, you’d possibly increase your life expectancy by another 3.2 years. That’s a net gain of around 2.7 years, or in simpler terms, for every hour you run you lengthen your life by another seven hours (six net).

在对数据进行分析后，研究人员得出了一个令人鼓舞的结果。不仅坚持跑步的人过早死亡的几率下降了约40%，而且跑步给这些人带来了比所消耗的还多的生命。比如说，你每周跑步两小时(大约每天不到20分钟)。接下来的40年，你可能因为跑步损失了不到6个月的生命，但是，从研究结果来看，你的寿命能平均延长3.2年。所以你相当于净赚差不多2.7年的时间。或者，我们简单来说，你每跑一小时，就能净赚6个小时的生命。

The longevity benefits aren’t without limits, however. As co-author Dr. Duck-chul Lee, professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University, explains, running won’t let you live forever. Lee says you cap out at around three extra years, regardless of how much extra running you do over your lifetime, which isn’t the best news for long-distance runners who really crank out the miles. The data showed that improvements to life expectancy plateaued somewhere around four hours of running per week. But the good news is prolonged running doesn’t seem to be counterproductive either. Runners who went well beyond the average running time each week didn’t see any declines in health or life expectancy.

然而，这种延长生命的手法有着一定的限制。论文合著者爱荷华州立大学的运动学教授李达哲音译: Duck Chul Lee博士说到：跑步不会让你长生不死。李博士说，无论你跑了多久，你最多只能延长3年多寿命。这可能对于长跑运动者不是什么好消息。数据显示，预期寿命的增长在每周跑步四小时后趋于稳定。但好消息是，长期跑步似乎也不会导致预期寿命下降。在每周跑步时间远远超过平均跑步时间的跑步者身上上，研究人员没有看到任何健康水平或预期寿命值的下降。

Walking, cycling, and other cardio activity had life prolonging benefits as well, but running seemed to provide the best return of time investment. Lee and his fellow researchers aren’t sure why that is, but it may have something to do with how it raises your overall aerobic fitness, and that is one of the best-known indicators for your long-term health.

步行，骑自行车等其他有氧活动也可以延长生命，但是跑步似乎是投资回报率最高的一种运动方式。李博士和其他研究人员不清楚为什么是这样，但跑步似乎与提高身体的整体有氧运动水平这一指标有关。

That said, as with other similar studies, it’s important to note that correlation doesn’t equal causation. What this data actually proves is that people who run tend to also live longer, but not necessarily that running is the main reason for that. Dr. Lee notes that runners also tend to lead healthier lives in general, so other lifestyle choices, like diet and sleep, likely play a major role as well. Even so, this new data sheds more light on the many perks of cardio workouts, and how you can benefit from them down the road. So lace up those shoes and run for your life.

也就是说，与其他类似研究一样，我们需要注意相关性并不等于因果关系。也就是说，数据研究结果证明，坚持跑步的人确实能活的更长，但是跑步不一定是导致寿命增长的主要原因。李博士指出，跑步者也通常会选择健康的生活方式、过着更健康的生活。这些健康的生活方式，比如饮食和睡眠，也可能在延长生命中发挥了重要的作用。但即使如此，数据也显示了有氧运动具有许多优点，人们也可以从中受益。所以，换上运动鞋，我们一起去跑步吧。