Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 233 posts

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#41

Post by ec109685 »

vladharbuz wrote: post #3

The article's title is somewhat misleading. The study emphasises the level of fitness rather than the regularity of exercise. [0] > Question: What is the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and long-term mortality? > Findings: In this cohort study of 122 007 consecutive patients undergoing exercise treadmill testing, cardiorespiratory fitness was inversely associated with all-cause mortality without an obse…

I wonder how they know it is modifiable? Without splitting the population into “folks we told to exercise” and those who we did not, you can’t really know how successful such a program is.

People that feel good and aren’t sick will be likely to exercise more, so there are confounding factors.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#42

Post by ddebernardy »

Boxxed wrote: post #5
vladharbuz wrote: post #3

The article's title is somewhat misleading. The study emphasises the level of fitness rather than the regularity of exercise. [0] > Question: What is the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and long-term mortality? > Findings: In this cohort study of 122 007 consecutive patients undergoing exercise treadmill testing, cardiorespiratory fitness was inversely associated with all-cause mortality without an obse…

That's a little pedantic, even for HN, don't you think? "Oh, it's not the exercise that's important, it's the stuff that happens BECAUSE you exercise."

It's not pedantic at all. I'm ~40 and don't exercise at all, yet I'm still perfectly fit. I presume it's due to doing groceries by foot several times per week, having a standup desk, and carrying the kid around. Perhaps genes help too. But the point I'd like to get across is: going to the gym isn't the sine qua non of making you fit. You can get enough "exercise" by simply living without a car, standing, and walking.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#43

Post by losteric »

WalterSear wrote: post #32
Jill_the_Pill wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It should always be a person's #1 priority to live as long as possible." Living as well and as beneficently as possible might be higher priorities. The older folks with the desk jobs are often quite literally sacrificing their own well-being for their family's, "deprioritizing their health" for another priority. "You could not do more with your money than get professional help in steering your body" You could donate…

>The older folks with the desk jobs are often quite literally sacrificing their own well-being for their family's, "deprioritizing their health" for another priority. Family planning is not rocket science. Choosing to breed without the appropriate resources may be socially normalized behaviour, but portraying parenthood as a selfless act is to gloss over the fact that the parents knowingly engendered the impoverished…

Apparently, family planning is rocket science.

What is your rational definition of "appropriate resources"? Public school? Public school in a better but more expensive district? Extracurriculars? Tutoring? Private school? Fully supported university education? Love is not rational... it's giving your all and more for someone that matters.

Workaholics are not inherently good parents, but good parents do go the "extra" mile to improve their child's life.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#44

Post by cultus »

newnewpdro wrote: post #7
js2 wrote: post #2

There's a gentleman who spends an hour or so every night walking around the neighborhood. He's usually watching something on his phone as he walks, and he always smokes a cigar at some point. I've always wondered if he'd be better off not exercising and not smoking that cigar. I guess now I know.

They're not really comparable. What good is being fit when you die in your 50s from lung cancer?

Cigar smokers typically don't inhale. It's more of a oral cancer risk.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#45

Post by ilovecaching »

JimDabell wrote: post #16
ilovecaching wrote: post #9

My work provides a gym, and I go there for at least an hour every weekday. I'd rather do poorly at work then skip exercising to be honest. I see some of the older employees coming in trying to reverse the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and I do not envy that position. It's crazy how people will deprioritze their health. It should always be a person's #1 priority to live as long as possible. Of course, diet is also…

> It's crazy how people will deprioritze their health. > Also, if you're struggling with getting fit, GET A PERSONAL TRAINER AND NUTRITIONIST. There are tonnes of people out there who are just scraping by, who have to work two exhausting jobs, who have to spend all of their free time looking after kids, etc., who can't afford the gym, let alone a personal trainer and nutritionist. If you have the time and money to do…

There are a lot of people who use not enough time, money, etc as an excuse. If your doctor told you the only way for you to see another year was to get in shape and eat right, how would you prioritize then? Would you still go to the movies? Go out for drinks and food?

For the people who absolutely can't afford it, there's a lot of good information for free online. My point is that for many of us, we treat professional help as a luxury or explain it away rather than embrace it as a necessity.

The real wealth in life is your health.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#46

Post by kazinator »

cultus wrote: post #44
newnewpdro wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not really comparable. What good is being fit when you die in your 50s from lung cancer?

Cigar smokers typically don't inhale. It's more of a oral cancer risk.

Cigar smokers don't inhale through the cigar, but they inhale, just like second-hand smokers inhale.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#47

Post by armada651 »

wild_preference wrote: post #6
vladharbuz wrote: post #3

The article's title is somewhat misleading. The study emphasises the level of fitness rather than the regularity of exercise. [0] > Question: What is the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and long-term mortality? > Findings: In this cohort study of 122 007 consecutive patients undergoing exercise treadmill testing, cardiorespiratory fitness was inversely associated with all-cause mortality without an obse…

How do you propose that someone attain a high degree of fitness without regular exercise? Would it be insufficient for a study to tell people to drink more water even though we know it's not the action of drinking water that helps us, but the cellular interaction with it once it's inside us? And even though people could connect saline bags directly to their nervous system? So, I'm wondering what you're clarifying.

> How do you propose that someone attain a high degree of fitness without regular exercise?

There are some personal factors involved, two people performing on equal level on the treadmill test does not imply they exercise with the same regularity.

For example, I use my mountain bike for exercise, but on the treadmill I'll probably be beaten by the person that exercises by jogging even if we exercise with the same regularity.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#48

Post by antirez »

This approach is interesting because, if you ask people "do you go to the gym", you are faced with the fact that 90% of gym attenders actually do not train, but pretend to train. So instead the treadmill test is a much better predictor I guess since it meters the results of your training as athletic performance.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#49

Post by WalterSear »

losteric wrote: post #43
WalterSear wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The older folks with the desk jobs are often quite literally sacrificing their own well-being for their family's, "deprioritizing their health" for another priority. Family planning is not rocket science. Choosing to breed without the appropriate resources may be socially normalized behaviour, but portraying parenthood as a selfless act is to gloss over the fact that the parents knowingly engendered the impoverished…

Apparently, family planning is rocket science. What is your rational definition of "appropriate resources"? Public school? Public school in a better but more expensive district? Extracurriculars? Tutoring? Private school? Fully supported university education? Love is not rational... it's giving your all and more for someone that matters. Workaholics are not inherently good parents, but good parents do go the "extra"…

It's not. Saying it is doesn't make it so. Neither does thousands of people choosing misery for themselves and their children. Just like physical health, people very much want family planning to be complicated, because it allows them more room to rationalize short-sighted, self-gratifying decisions.

Appropriate resources are resources that give you the space to be healthily present for yourself and your child. It means time and money, or more specifically, the money to buy time.

Love is not having a baby. You can't love someone who doesn't exist, and making someone to love if you don't have the money to take care of you both is equal parts selfish and self-defeating.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#50

Post by csydas »

ilovecaching wrote: post #45
JimDabell wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's crazy how people will deprioritze their health. > Also, if you're struggling with getting fit, GET A PERSONAL TRAINER AND NUTRITIONIST. There are tonnes of people out there who are just scraping by, who have to work two exhausting jobs, who have to spend all of their free time looking after kids, etc., who can't afford the gym, let alone a personal trainer and nutritionist. If you have the time and money to do…

There are a lot of people who use not enough time, money, etc as an excuse. If your doctor told you the only way for you to see another year was to get in shape and eat right, how would you prioritize then? Would you still go to the movies? Go out for drinks and food? For the people who absolutely can't afford it, there's a lot of good information for free online. My point is that for many of us, we treat professiona…

> For the people who absolutely can't afford it, there's a lot of good information for free online.

There's also tons of it that's downright horrible or outright dangerous. The simple truth is that most professional help in the US is out of reach of most people unless they're willing to take on a significant debt the their salary doesn't support. It's not as clear cut always as "health is most important" -- it's not even clear how much any given procedure will cost two different people with the same insurance for the exact same process.

>If your doctor told you the only way for you to see another year was to get in shape and eat right, how would you prioritize then? Would you still go to the movies? Go out for drinks and food?

Maybe not a good example, as if my doctor told me the only way to see another year was to basically cut out a few pleasures in life, I'd just bite the bullet on this one, and I imagine quite a few others would also. This isn't suicide ideation or anything, it's more just a value judgement; how great will my life be during that year? Right now, without the mental stress of imminent death in my mind, an enfeebled life or one that just racks up a huge bill for those legally closest to me seems pointless.

Ultimately I agree with you that we can make time for ourselves -- an hour walking is better than no time walking, and if you can convert that into 15 minutes of jogging, even better. It's the same time we spend watching our shows on Sunday, and I think we can at least do that for ourselves.

But as someone who loves to cook, hates takeout, etc, there are days when even I just don't have the usual energy to go through and prepare a proper meal or to put the hour into my regularly scheduled run: 12+ hour days do that to you.

Post reply on HN