Can Tennis Help You Live Longer?
Researchers have recently published a study in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings show that people who play tennis had an increased chance of longer life expectancy.
The researchers monitored thousands of people over 25 years and considered factors such as sex, age, income and education status. Importantly, they also tracked what sports the participants played and when they died.
Interestingly, they found tennis players lived longest among the activities they looked at — ahead of soccer, swimming and cycling.
Sports associated with the biggest increases in life expectancy are tennis (9.7 years), badminton (6.2 years) and soccer (4.7 years). Researchers recognised the common characteristics these sports have in common is that they take two or more people to play them.
Researchers concluded that sports near the bottom of the list were more typically done alone, like jogging (3.2 years) and going to the gym (1.5 years).
While the researchers can’t definitively say that tennis leads to a longer life, what they can say is that participating in a group sport is beneficial not only to your physical health but your mental well being too.
If you’d like to read more about this study, please click on the below links to the ABC article and the Mayo Clinic Proceedings report.
Mayo Clinic Proceedings Report
Sources: ABC
