Today we return to the government- and Big Pharma disinformation website ‘Medical News Today,’ and a recent summary of yet another extremely poorly executed study. This time it was a paper on the longevity of the first 200 sub-4 min mile male runners, put together by some ill-trained monkeys at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
As you should know, all form of intense exercise is stress and damages the body, which means that resources have to be spent on removing debris, metabolic waste, and repairing and remodeling tissue. The body simply does this to be better prepared for the next time you find yourself in such a challenging situation, as the body perceives it as a threat to its survival.
While some exercise, and specially building a little extra muscle mass and strength will protect us, especially as we grow older, too much will simply wear and tear on your body and its resources, dramatically shortening your lifespan. I covered this in my article, Exercise, Accelerated Ageing, and Life Expectancy.
So, let’s see what this study was all about and what findings the researchers believed they found. Medical News Today began their article with a few bullet points to set the stage.
- “Regular exercise is an important part of living a healthy life, but some research suggests intense exercise may do more harm than good.”
Yes, this is common sense. You need to move about and be able to handle yourself, as you would have done if you lived in nature, building and tending your own home and hunting and scavenging for food.
However, humans have larger brains than any other predator and a cleverly constructed body with hands, fingers and thumbs. A body that is very capable of construction traps and weapons, and thus humans can outwit its prey instead of running it down. This is why we do not have canines, but simply sharp teeth made for chewing raw meat – and why we have the same stomach acid pH as a wolf, so we can eat leftovers from other predators.
- “A new study challenges previous findings and suggests that those who participate in extreme exercise may live longer.”
That goes against biology and physiology, and it will be interesting to see how they reached that conclusion.
- “Researchers tracked a select group of elite runners capable and found they could live around five years longer on average than the general population.”
That is a simplification of the data, and we’ll get to that. Also, it’s cherry-picking of statistical details, details that might not have anything to do with the outcome.
- “Further studies on types of exercise and duration are needed to substantiate these findings.”
No, not really, not if you have some common sense.
After those embarrassing bullet points, the author, Corrie Pelc, continued on to introduce the study.
“For this study, la Gerche and his team focused on the longevity of a group of the first 200 male elite runners to run a sub-4-minute mile. The runners were from 28 different countries across North America, Europe, Oceania, and Africa.
All study participants were born between 1928 to 1955 and were on average 23 years old when they ran a mile in under 4 minutes.
Of the 200 participants, 60 — or 30% — had died, leaving 140 still alive at the time of the study.”
So, the data was gathered from merely 60 people who sometime during their life had competed and managed to complete a mile in less than 4 minutes. Also, being born between 1928 and 1955, many of them were at their peak before processed foods were widely available, while most people still consumed a lot of healthy meat, before vaccines were pushed on people, and while chemical pollution were still low. Not to mention that elite athletes usually took better care of themselves, especially in the past before all the drugs and toxic supplements, which would mitigate some of the damage from the excessive exercise.
“Researchers found the average age of death for the study participants overall was 73, but the average age for the surviving elite runners was 77.”
You do know that humans in ideal conditions should be able to live until 130 to 150 years old, right? In my family tree, the only one to die before the age of 85 was my mother who struggled with idiotic ideas such as vegetarianism during the 90’s and early 2000, and was very sickly due to psoriasis and arthritis from heavy medication. The point is, dying at 77-years old is extremely young.
After this, Medical News Today only mentions two of the tree groups, those who completed the mile in less than 4-minutes during the ’50s and 60’s. They did not mention the third group, those who did it during the 70’s… The reason is obvious, as it clearly demonstrates that extreme exercise has nothing to do with the outcome of the study, it is all about other factors.
This is what the researchers actually found if you read the study yourself:
“When accounting for the decade of completion (1950s, 1960s or 1970s), the longevity benefits were 9.2 years (n=22; 95% CI 8.3 to 10.1), 5.5 years (n=88; 95% CI 5.3 to 5.7) and 2.9 years (n=90; 95% CI 2.7 to 3.1), respectively.”
So, those who took care of their health and exercised a lot and was at their physical peak during the 1950’s lived 9.2 years longer than the average person.
The same ‘elite athletes,’ ten years later, in the 1960’s, only lived 5.5 years longer, almost a 50% reduction in only ten years. And those ten years after that, in the 1970’s only lived a measly 2.9 years longer, almost another 50% reduction, and that in an era when fast-food, plant-based garbage, and chemical pollution exploded. Yet, they do not even question or speculate about these differences.
However, we who are not as stupid or paid-off as these researchers and the shills writing for Medical News Today, we see a pattern.
With that said, it’s not surprising that Medical News Today left out the data from the 70’s and that they rounded off the figures to say that elite runners lived “5.5 years longer” than average. What a lot of horseshit! Complete deception!
How do you think the figures will look like for those runners that were in their peak in the 1980’s, 1990’s or even 2000’s? Will it actually be negative? Yes, most likely. It went down from 9.2 years to 2.9 years in only a span of 30 years, and that was when things were still not that bad, not nearly what we have seen in the past 30 years.
And that proves, without a doubt, that it is not the extreme exercise that was or is contributing to a longer life-expectancy, but rather avoiding all the man-made crap that exploded in the 1950’s, 1960’s and forward.
Before the 1960’s, those who exercised and competed actually lived the lifestyle and took care of their bodies, while the regular man just ate some good food, but also a lot of crap, and then had a couple of smokes and some alcohol. If you actually have talked with athletes of that era, which I did a lot in the past, you would know that they literally lived on meat, eggs, and raw milk. They also fasted for days several times a year, as that was a common practice among both athletes, the military, and the police. It was part of building character and discipline. Yes, they were much more aware back then. And that is why they lived a little longer despite extreme exercising.
If they would have cut their exercise in half, they would likely have lived another 10 years longer or more.
After failing miserably at understanding what their data actually shows, Medical News Today asked the researchers what you can do to live longer if you’re not an “elite athlete.”
“Although we are told not to extrapolate in science, personally, I use this data as an aspiration to try and emulate as many lifestyle factors as a 4-minute miler: good diet, modest alcohol, dedication, and regular, intense exercise, la Gerche said.”
Well, if you actually would do that, you would have to go back before the 60’s and look at their lifestyle factors back then, before it all went downhill.
And if you actually were to do that, you would see that consuming a lot of animal-based foods, as in our natural species-appropriate diet while avoiding anything processed and man-made would contribute the most to a longer life.
However, what they did back then was still a far cry from what is natural and ideal for humans as a species, as we are obligate hyper carnivores – and the fact that excessive exercise is very bad for our health.
Still, avoiding anything made from plants and processed by man, while consuming what is species-specific will contribute the most to a longer and healthier life. To add to this, only exercise in moderation and reduce stress and pollutants.
Now, the big question is if these people are this incredible stupid, or if they simply lie and deceive as it’s part of their evil agenda, what they are paid to do. Either way, people who listen to these charlatans will do great damage to themselves. And that is why we do what we do, trying our best to explain simple human physiology and to wake people up, helping as many as we can.
For more on exercise and nutrition, please check my Quick Start archive with my most important articles sorted by subject.
Quick Start: Nutrition, Supplements, and Our Natural Species-Appropriate Diet