Body mass index, or BMI, is often measured by physicians to
monitor a patient’s need for exercise, and if a patient’s BMI points towards
obesity, exercise is usually prescribed to shed extra pounds. However, while obesity presents a variety of
health challenges, a new long-term study has revealed that muscle mass is a
vastly more accurate indicator of longevity.
Researchers from U.C.L.A. have just concluded a long-term
study of 3,600 seniors over the course of 10 years. The researchers focussed on subject mortality
rates and used both BMI and muscle mass in an attempt to predict chances of
death. Their study, appearing in The American Journal of Medicine,
revealed that BMI did rather poorly as a prediction tool. Rather it was muscle mass that proved a
reliable indicator.
Although the researchers could not conclusively establish a
cause-and-effect relationship between muscle mass and survival they did assert
its importance as a predictor of risk of death.
Study author Preethi Srikanthan, of U.C.L.A. had this to add: “Get up
and start moving. Focus on trying to maintain
the maximum amount of resistance training that you can, and stop worrying so
much about dropping calories.”
In other words, share a little time between the treadmill and
the barbell; a stronger life might just be a longer life.
Source: The American Journal of Medicine
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