A recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined how running a sub-4 minute mile impacts longevity and healthy aging. The study was a collaborative undertaking between researchers in the U of A’s Faculty of Nursing, the HEART Laboratory at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, with methodological and analytical expertise provided by Drs. Douglas Dover and Padma Kaul at the CVC.
Inspired by the 70th anniversary of Roger Bannister’s record-breaking mile run of 3:59.4, the study utilized a publicly available database to identify the first 200 athletes to run a mile in under 4 minutes. The researchers compared each runner’s date of birth, the date of their first successful mile attempt, and current age (or age of death if deceased) with the typical life expectancy associated with their country of origin. The study population included only male athletes since no women have yet to run a sub-4 minute mile.
Despite the common perception that extreme exercise can be detrimental, study findings demonstrated that this group of runners lived an average of 4.7 years longer than their predicted life expectancy. Although the study population is a specialized group of elite athletes who have trained from a young age, the study’s senior author, Dr. Mark Haykowsky, believes that moderate to vigorous exercise can still be beneficial for the general population. He also suggests that if a study were to examine elite female runners, they would likely find similar benefits to longevity, regardless of the sub-4 minute mile barrier.
This paper was co-authored by Stephen Foulkes, PhD; Dean Hewitt, MSc; Rachel Skow, PhD; Douglas Dover, PhD; Padma Kaul, PhD; André La Gerche, MBBS, PhD; and Mark Haykowsky, PhD.
Read more about the findings of this study on the U of A Folio website.
