Can exercising help you live longer? Twin study says it may be complicated

• Past studies have shown that certain lifestyle choices, such as exercising regularly, may help extend longevity. 
• A new study found that higher levels of physical activity may not benefit life span as much as previously thought. 
• However, experts say regular activity is crucial for overall health and life quality.

For as long as there has been science, researchers have continued to look for ways to help us live longer. 

Past studies show that certain healthy lifestyle choices, such as eating a healthy diet, not smoking, and exercising regularly may help increase a person’s life span. 

“The length of the life span reflects the overall health of individuals,” Elina Sillanpää, PhD, associate professor in the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland told GMHCN. 

“Many people still die from diseases that are partially preventable through healthy lifestyles. For example, physical activity recommendations are based on studies investigating the associations between activity and life span. Physical activity can affect various diseases and the aging process. Life span is an outcome that may combine all potential health benefits of physical activity,” she said.

Sillanpää is the lead of the GenActive research project that launched in 2021 to study the potential links between physical activity, cardiometabolic disease, and genetics.

In one of the newest studies from the project, Sillanpää and her team report that higher levels of physical activity may not benefit lifespan as much as previously thought. 

The study was recently published in the journal European Journal of Epidemiology.

For this study, researchers analyzed health data from almost 23,000 Finnish twins born before 1958 who had been part of the Finnish Twin Cohort.

Study participants had their physical activity levels evaluated three times — in 1975, 1981, and 1990. And the mortality rate of participants was followed up until the end of 2020.

“Previous animal and twin studies suggested that the association between physical activity and lifespan is not as straightforward as commonly thought, which piqued our interest in this topic,” Sillanpää said. 

“We believed that by using novel methods — such as polygenic scoring to determine inherited disease risk, epigenetic clocks to estimate biological age, and longitudinal twin designs to adjust for genetic confounding — we could produce new evidence on this topic,” she explained. 

Study participants were divided into four groups — sedentary, moderately active, active, and highly active — based on their physical activity data over the 15-year follow-up.

When the different groups were analyzed at the 30-year follow-up point, researchers found those in the sedentary and moderately active groups had a 7% lower risk of mortality, which was the highest benefit percentage amongst the four groups.

Additionally, researchers found that meeting the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended 150 to 300 minutes of moderate or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity per week did not lower participants’ mortality risk or change their genetic disease risk.