Less chronic disease in store for fit 50-year-olds: study (USA)

Fit 50-year-olds are less likely to get chronic diseases as they age, according to a U.S. study that sheds new light on the link between exercise and healthy aging. "It has been known for decades that if you are more fit, you live longer," Dr. Jarett Berry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, told Reuters Health. "But it has not been clear that you have a higher quality of life, that you age better." It's possible that fit people just delay the onset of chronic illness, for instance, and end up being sick just as long as their weaker peers. But that doesn't appear to be the case, according to the new research, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "We see truly reduced chronic disease, rather than just delaying the inevitable," said Berry, who led the study. He and his colleagues studied more than 18,600 healthy men and women who had undergone a treadmill test sometime around age 50 to measure their cardiorespiratory fitness