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Researchers at the University of Utrecht say that Dutch cyclists live longer than people who do not use a bike.They say the evidence proves that cycling is not just good for your health but adds an average of six months to life expectancy.
People in the Netherlands cycle an average of 74 minutes per week.
Anna Holligan reports.
Video report by lady with a Scottish accent riding a bike:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34498871?post_id=10153610763518866_10153659480583866
"adds an average of six months to life expectancy"
That's actually a bit surprising - and disappointing (more from a public health 'you should exercise' point of view than for individuals.)
We are already living a long time now, if we do not smoke.. Taking exercise will add significantly to that in a statistical sense. But in a real life sense, despite being statistically significant, six months may not seem that long?
"despite being statistically significant"
But is it?
That's less than 1% for (perhaps) an 'extra' 6 months of exercise!
Easier to obtain statistical significance with large sample sizes. Thus a small difference if it holds across a large population is statistically significant. See also Dutch being statistically significant in their height differential over smaller nations.
'also Dutch being statistically significant in their height differential over smaller nations"
Is that due to cycling??
Well now, this does highlight the difference between correlation and causation. The Dutch are taller and they cycle more so does cycling more make you taller? (Again the height thing might be small like 1:72) but highly statistically significant.
It's not just the extra six months. If you're sitting in a high chair with day time TV up at 11 for the last 5 years that's not as good as 5 years of active life.
"...highlight the difference between correlation and causation. The Dutch are taller..."
Also some evidence that taller people live longer than shorter people, perhaps the cycling makes no difference what so ever?....
As already mentioned, 6 months effort for an extra 6 months extra not really going to be a big sell for most folks.
The Dutch used to live a lot longer than the rest of us but we have caught up, they have been resting on their laurels with all this tallness and cycling
So 'statistically' - don't smoke, don't drink ridiculous amounts of alcohol, don't eat the type/amount of food that makes you unnecessarily heavy and don't bother about exercise?
"
Dashing between his firm’s office in George Street and up The Mound to the court helps keep him fit.
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'In addition to his daily walks around the streets of Edinburgh, John credits his no-nonsense diet with keeping him trim. He tucks into two plates of home-made porridge every day - one in the morning and another at supper time. He said: “I love porridge. It sets me up for the day and gives me a good night’s sleep, too.” '
I suppose it could also be like the alcohol consumption correlation, people that consume a small amount of alcohol living long than those that don’t. This may not be causation etc, The people that don’t may include ex alcoholics, or people with medical conditions that may already shorten live.
So I suppose in theory it could be that the people that don’t cycle in the Netherlands have a condition that makes cycling less easy that also shortens their lives.
The Dutch eat an impressive volume of dairy products, I believe. Lots of cheese. That may help explain the height, and the cycling may help counteract the effects of all that milk fat consumption.
I suspect your state of health in your later years will affect your quality of life - be interesting to see how that's influenced by regular cycling.
@ u
That of course is important, valid and worth having some data on.
It seems likely that "quality of life" will be better for people who 'happen to keep riding bikes'.
I find it odd that there isn't - also - a noticeable/significant increase in life expectancy.
Suppose it depends on the baseline too - are the Dutch already on average long-lived? If so maybe there isn't much biological wriggle room for more (average) life extension?
@unhurt, the Dutch, Brits and Germans all now have average life expectancy around 80 years. If you go back a bit the Dutch had a life expectancy of 74 when the Brits and Germans were more like 70.
We have closed the gap on them. Two factors may be at play (or indeed more than two factors) a rising mean and a regression towards the mean. I like the latter phenomenon a lot. Thus, over time and across a population long lived people will have slightly less long lived children. Or tall people will have slightly less tall children (remember the first factor the rising mean though).
At PS my favourite tall Dutchman says the height is linked to the dairy products.
I have a lot of things to do tonight, and reading about "regression towards the mean" on the internet is not going to get any of it done. (This is what I'm telling myself and yet I might be about to open some new tabs...)
6 months extra life expectancy seems pretty reasonable for people spending 1.25 hours a week cycling? 15 mins a day?
Ideally a study could show the complete relationship between mean hours cycling and life expectancy. Those of us doing more than 5 hours a week are hopeful of more than an extra 6 months... ;)
No doubt some of this is due to pragmatic approaches to 'just doing things'. (Obviously he is not directly talking about cycling or 'activity' but such things are relevant to 'health and wellbeing'.)
This is Harry Burns' view -
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"Scotland has learnt over the past few years about the use of improvement methods to change outcomes, and we think there's an opportunity to use these methods for families through helping public services work differently with them. My default strategy is always to just get out and do something. Don't wait for permission, strategies, or ministerial pronouncements. If something needs doing, fix it and ask permission afterwards."
"
I like the idea of the QALY. Seems like a great way of capturing the idea that two periods of six months life can have a very different value to the person living them.
In my view the key benefit of bicycling has been to increase the quality of the years I have lived, regardless of whether I would live fewer of them had I not bicycled.
The last of my grandparents' generation died a couple of years ago at ninety three. In the hospital the little old lady who fought in WWII was very keen to proudly show me the scar on her forehead she got from cycling into a telegraph pole in Peterculter in the 1930s. I think even that day was one of high quality and real meaning for her. Should I ever reach that stage I suspect I will bore my young audience with tales of how cycling was before forcefield weather shields were invented.
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