Any kind of exercise will help extend your life, say researchers who used a sophisticated test to arrive at that conclusion. ‘There are plenty of reports out there saying that self-reported exercise like running or jogging is beneficial,’ said lead researcher Todd M. Manini, an exercise physiologist at the U.S. National Institute on Aging. ‘We wanted to see if just usual daily activity had a protective value.’ His team’s six-year study of 302 people between 70 and 82 years of age found that any sort of energy expenditure through physical activity was associated with a lower risk of death. That finding, published in the July 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, is not entirely surprising. Organizations such as the American Heart Association have long said that some physical activity is better than none. What was unusual about this study was the exquisitely detailed measurements used to determine levels of physical activity, Manini said. In the study, the researchers had volunteers drink water containing two harmless isotopes, oxygen-18 and hydrogen-2. Oxygen-18 is eliminated from the body in water, while hydrogen-2 is eliminated not only in water but also in carbon dioxide, which is […]