Who knew that a study on jogging would result in my first aneurism? I was intrigued by the headline “Jogging boosts lifespan up to six years, study shows,” so naturally I let my mouse “jog’ its way over the hyperlink and click on the story. After some cursory reading, it became apparent that I had been bamboozled!
The conclusion is described accurately in the headline, but the quality of the science is rather unsettling. It would seam that the “researchers” in 1976 put together a pool of 20k people, and identified around 2k of them to be “joggers.” Then while controlling for nothing else than the fact that they jogged, they came to the conclusion that jogging can add up to six years to your life.
I will be the first to say that I wasn’t the best in science class, but this is just sad. Someone paid these jokers to do a 25 year study and this is what they got? How can you come to that conclusion? Shouldn’t there be more variables? For example, I know that when I am feeling extra exercisy (its a word), I tend to eat better too. Wouldn’t it be fair to suggest that these so called “joggers” might have eaten differently than the non joggers?
Well, we will never know, because, hey, just do some jogging at some point in your life, and you will live up to six years longer… Kapeesh? Me Neither…
