Source 1
Reimers, Carl, Guido Knapp, and Anne Reimers. “Does physical activity increase life expectancy? A review of the literature.” Journal of Aging Research 1.1 (2012): 108-117. Print.
Credibility
This article is highly credible because the authors are renowned scholars and researchers. For instance, Anne Reimers is a medical professor and a lecturer at the University of Konstanz in Germany.
Summary of the Argument
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to explore the credibility of the existing literature in giving information on the ability of physical activities to increase life expectancy.
Summary
The authors of this article established that physical activity plays a critical role in ensuring that an individual does not suffer from lifestyle diseases like hypertension and diabetes, among others. According to the available literature, the authors established that physical exercise increased life expectancy by over 35 percent inactive individuals. On the contrary, individuals with inactive or sedentary lifestyles had an increased mortality rate by around 30 percent. The authors carried out a literature review on articles retrieved from the PubMed database to compare the mortality rates between individuals with active lifestyles and their inactive counterparts. Moreover, individuals involved in normal exercises were included in the study. Overall, the results indicated that individuals involved in active lifestyles had higher life expectancy as compared to their inactive counterparts. Similarly, athletes were found to have decreased mortality rates as opposed to non-athletes. Therefore, the overriding issue in this study is that physical exercise decreases the mortality rate by over 35 percent. Life expectancy can increase by between 6 months to eight years.
What did I learn?
The article is helpful because it reveals that the life expectancy of active persons is higher than that of their inactive counterparts. Physically active persons have a lower risk of suffering from diseases such as diabetes mellitus coupled with cardiovascular and lung diseases that easily affect non-active subjects. Hence, it is essential for a research question where exercise affects longevity.
Source 2
Schuna, John, William Johnson, and Catrine Tudor-Locke. “Adult self-reported and objectively monitored physical activity and sedentary behavior: NHANES 2005–2006.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 10.126 (2013): 413-119. Print.
Credibility
John Schuna is an assistant professor of Biomedical School at Oregon State University, and he has written over twenty-four publications in the medical field. Therefore, the article is highly credible for the research.
Summary of the Argument
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between exercise and longevity, where the null hypothesis was that physically active persons live longer as compared to their inactive counterparts.
Summary
In the research, the authors came up with a number of questionnaires and selected several respondents to answer them. The participants were required to fill in their responses based on their physical activity in a period of one month. The physical exercises covered a wide array of activities, including normal activities like walking and leisure-time undertakings. Trained experts facilitated the data collection exercise during the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) interview program. A certain device to record one’s activity was worn around the waist for seven consecutive days.
It was found that self-reported physical activity and sedentary behaviors were independently associated variables, but they were both known to have adverse health outcomes to humans, including mortality. Adults who complied with health guidelines were found to score highly on physical activity, but they did not engage in less sedentary behavior than those not achieving the set guidelines.
What did I learn?
I learned that physical activities are essential for reducing the risks of health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and even death. Hence, the research is relevant in answering the research question that exercise affects life longevity.
Source 3
Zaccagni, Luciana, Davide Barbieri, and Emanuela Gualdi-Russ. “Body composition and physical activity in Italian university students.” Journal of Translational Medicine 12.120 (2014): 238-244. Print.
Credibility
The article is credible as the authors are distinguished scholars. Luciana Zaccagni has a Ph.D. from the University of Ferrara, and he is a renowned author of many articles, which have been published in the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine.
Summary of the Argument
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the functioning of the different body parts amongst young adults.
Summary
The background of this study hinged on the assumption that inactive lifestyles are associated with some lifestyle diseases. However, the authors sought to establish the contribution of different factors towards the causation of such diseases. Some of the parameters included in the study were sex, age, and one’s lifestyle. As aforementioned, the study focused on university students as they had the required target age bracket of young adults. The selected participants were given questionnaires, and they were supposed to fill in specific information concerning their sexes, ages, body mass index, the ratio of waist to stature. These elements were used to determine whether body fat depends on any of them. After the exercise, it was determined the males with the highest level of physical activity recorded the minimal percentage of fat mass. On the other side, the most active females had unusually elevated levels of fat-free mass. Therefore, despite the correlational outcomes seen in the results, it was established that such parameters could not be used to determine the amount of fat amongst young people. Nevertheless, it was clear that physical activity was a key determinant in shaping the composition of an individual’s body.
.What Did I Learn?
Physical activity helps in the regulation of the level of fat in the body, and the more a person is engaged in physical activities, the lower the fat content in the body, hence the more healthy the person. Therefore, physical activity is important in keeping a person free from health risks, and this aspect increases life longevity.
Source 4
Pribis, Peter, Carol Burtnack, Sonya McKenzie, and Jerome Thayer. “Trends in Body Fat, Body Mass Index, and Physical Fitness among Male and Female College Students.” Nutrients 2.10 (2010): 1075–1085. Print.
Credibility
This article is credible because it is written by highly qualified scholars; for instance, Sonya McKenzie has a Ph.D., and she works as Senior Lecturer at Andrews University in the Department of Nutrition and Wellness.
Summary of the Argument
Purpose
This study sought to establish the different aspects that contribute to physical fitness amongst young people. Some of the factors included the levels of lipids in the body, glucose in the serum, and the wellness of the different body parts.
Summary
The participants were five hundred and sixty-four college students, aged nineteen years, and they had participated in the Tufts University Longitudinal Health Study between the years 2000 and 2007. They were examined for “the relative impact of fitness level compared with body composition in terms of serum glucose, triglycerides, High-density lipoprotein (HDL), Low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and cholesterol levels” (Pribis et al. 1077).
According to the results, 16.2% were overweight or obese, and 60% of them had undesirable body fats, whereby a higher percentage of them is associated with increased LDL in both and male and female participants. From the research, metabolic risk factors were evident in the college population. Students with high levels of body fat were found to be physically unfit, probably due to reduced exercising, which contributed to metabolic inefficiencies.
What did I learn?
Risk metabolic factors are highly related to physical fitness, and thus one should be physically fit in order to have well-controlled metabolic factors in the body.
Source 5
Woolf, Kathleen, Christine Reese, Maureen Mason, Leah Beaird, Catrine Tudor-Locke, and Linda Vaughan. “Physical activity is associated with risk factors for chronic disease across adult women’s life cycle.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 108.6 (2008): 948-959. Print.
Credibility
The article is highly credible as its authors are qualified professionals. For instance, Christine Reese has a master’s degree in Nutrition, and she is a registered dietitian in the United States.
Summary of the Argument
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the association of age (young, midlife, and old) and activity level (active and sedentary), determined by a pedometer device, with risk factors of chronic disease including body composition, dietary intake, serum lipids, insulin, leptin, C-reactive protein (CRP), plasma glucose, and resting metabolic rate (RMR) in women across the adult life cycle.
Summary
“Forty-nine (aged 20 to 30 years), sixty-two (aged 40 to 50 years), and forty-seven (aged 60 years and older) women were recruited for this study” (Woolf et al. 950). During the research period, the participants were required to put on a certain device for one week immediately after measuring their food components. The device was used to record the physical exercises that the participants would take during the research period. The steps taken every day were recorded, and if someone took less than 7,500 steps, s/he would be classified as inactive. Study results found that inactive participants had high serum cholesterol levels. These findings confirmed that physical exercise plays a critical role in the well-being of people.
What did I learn?
High serum cholesterol levels are associated with chronic diseases, and thus they can be controlled by physical activities.
Source 6
Citation
Gilliat-Wimberly, Meredith, Melinda Manore, Kathleen Woolf, Pamela Swan, and Steve Carroll. “Effects of habitual physical activity on the resting metabolic rates and body compositions of women aged 35 to 50 years.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 101.10 (2001):1181-1188. Print.
Credibility
The article is highly credible because all the authors are Ph.D. holders, and they have together written other articles, which have been published in the Journal of Academic Nutrition and Dietetics.
Summary of the Argument
Purpose
The purpose of the study was to “examine the effect of habitual physical activity on resting metabolic rate (RMR) and body composition (fat-free mass [FFM], fat mass, and percent body fat) in both active and sedentary adult women participants” (Gilliat-Wimberly 1182).
Summary
Healthy “weight-stable premenopausal women aged between 35 and 50 years were classified as either active (a sample of ten having approximately 9 hours per week of physical activity for ten or more years) or sedentary (a sample of fourteen having approximately 1 hour per week of physical activity) and taken as research participants” (Gilliat-Wimberly et al. 1183). In addition, the whole body air-displacement plethysmography, which is a scientifically proven medical research tool, was used to measure FFM, fat mass, and percent body fat. The researchers investigated how the participants consumed energy, giving foods coupled with determining how such individuals used the accumulated energy within one week of continuous recording.
According to the results, the participants involved in physical activities used more energy than their inactive counterparts did. The participants with sedentary lifestyles had an increased percentage of body fat. This realization implied that individuals with physically active lifestyles were not prone to lifestyle diseases that accompany increased body fate like hypertension.
What did I learn?
I learned that physical activity is a preventive mechanism of lifestyle diseases like hypertension and obesity, among others. For instance, hypertension occurs due to the accumulation of fat around the heart and arteries, thus hindering the normal functioning of the heart. However, I learned that exercise helps in burning the accumulated fat around the heart, thus reducing the chances of high blood pressure.
Source 7
Franco, Oscar, Chris de Laet, Anna Peeters, Jacqueline Jonker, Johan Mackenbach, and Wilma Nusselder. “Effects of physical activity on life expectancy with cardiovascular disease.” Archives of Internal Medicine 165.20 (2005):2355-60. Print.
Credibility
The article is highly credible because all the authors hold Ph.D. degrees in Public Health.
Summary of the Argument
Purpose
The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of physical activities on life expectancy for individuals aged above 50 years with and without cardiovascular diseases.
Summary
The researchers collected data using “multistate life tables, which have been developed by data from the Framingham Heart Study to calculate effects of physical activity (low, moderate, and high) among individuals older than 50 years” (Franco 2357).
The participants’ physical activity was used to determine several ratios based on different factors like age, sex, and lifestyle.
From the study results, it was clear that any form of physical activity leads to increased life expectancy and reduced chances of having heart-related conditions. It was established that gender was not a determinant factor because the extra number of years lived due to physical activity was almost the same amongst men and women.
What did I learn?
I learned that physical activity increases longevity by reducing the risks of cardiovascular diseases in people aged 50 years and above.
Source 8
Xu, Gang, Xuemei Sui, Shiwei Liu, Junxiu Liu, Jie Liu, Yichang Li, Shouqing Huang, Zhengzhen Wang, and Steven Blair. “Effects of insufficient physical activity on mortality and life expectancy in Jiangxi province of China, 2007-2010.” PLoS One 9.10 (2014): 234-239. Print.
Credibility
The article is highly credible because it was written by renowned authors in China. For instance, Shouqing Huang is a lecturer at the Fujian Chinese Tradition Medicine University, and he has written many publications in Chinese traditional medicine.
Summary of the Argument
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to “estimate mortality risk and LE effects associated with insufficient levels of physical activity in Jiangxi province” (Xu et al. 235).
Summary
The background of this study hinged on the premise that the issue of the effect of physical exercise on life expectancy is under-researched in different Chines populations. Therefore, the authors sought to study this area in Jiangxi province in a bid to fill gaps in the existing research works. The participants with less than two and a half hours of normal exercises in seven consecutive days were said to have insufficient physical activity. On the other side, individuals with less than 1 hour of intensive workouts within seven consecutive days were also said to have deficient physical activity. The normal exercise included walking and other everyday activities, among others. The results showed that individuals in Jiangxi province were highly likely to have insufficient physical activity. This realization implies that the Chinese within Jiangxi province were likely to have less than two and a half hours of normal exercise and less than 60 minutes of intensive workouts. Therefore, such individuals are likely to die young due to the reduced life expectancy courtesy of the predominant lifestyles.
What Did I Learn?
I learned that physical activity is a major factor in controlling life expectancy, and thus people should do regular exercises in order to increase their life expectancy. I realized that the Chinese in Jiangxi province should be educated on the benefits of being physically fit. This aspect explains why the Chinese government is working on policy changes in a bid to include the necessity of physical fitness in its health programs across the country.
Works Cited
Franco, Oscar, Chris de Laet, Anna Peeters, Jacqueline Jonker, Johan Mackenbach, and Wilma Nusselder. “Effects of physical activity on life expectancy with cardiovascular disease.” Archives of Internal Medicine 165.20 (2005): 2355-60. Print.
Gilliat-Wimberly, Meredith, Melinda Manore, Kathleen Woolf, Pamela Swan, and Steve Carroll. “Effects of habitual physical activity on the resting metabolic rates and body compositions of women aged 35 to 50 years.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 101.10 (2001):1181-1188. Print.
Pribis, Peter, Carol Burtnack, Sonya McKenzie, and Jerome Thayer. “Trends in Body Fat, Body Mass Index and Physical Fitness among Male and Female College Students.” Nutrients 2.10 (2010): 1075–1085. Print.
Reimers, Carl, Guido Knapp, and Anne Reimers. “Does physical activity increase life expectancy? A review of the literature.” Journal of Aging Research 1.1 (2012): 108-117. Print.
Schuna, John, William Johnson, and Catrine Tudor-Locke. “Adult self-reported and objectively monitored physical activity and sedentary behavior: NHANES 2005–2006.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 10.126 (2013): 413-119. Print.
Woolf, Kathleen, Christine Reese, Maureen Mason, Leah Beaird, Catrine Tudor-Locke, and Linda Vaughan. “Physical activity is associated with risk factors for chronic disease across adult women’s life cycle.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 108.6 (2008): 948-959. Print.
Xu, Gang, Xuemei Sui, Shiwei Liu, Junxiu Liu, Jie Liu, Yichong Li, Shouqing Huang, Zhengzhen Wang, and Steven Blair. “Effects of insufficient physical activity on mortality and life expectancy in Jiangxi province of China, 2007-2010.” PLoS One 9.10 (2014): 234-239. Print.
Zaccagni, Luciana, Davide Barbieri, and Emanuela Gualdi-Russ. “Body composition and physical activity in Italian university students.” Journal of Translational Medicine 12.120 (2014): 238-244. Print.