Elevator or stairs? Your choice could boost longevity, study finds
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
If you have the choice between taking the stairs or the elevator, which one do you pick? As part of our "How To Thrive As You Age" project, NPR's Allison Aubrey reports on new research showing just how consequential picking the stairs can be.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: The NPR headquarters is like a lot of office buildings.
SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE: (Through automated recording) Going up.
AUBREY: Most people enter through the lobby and head straight to the elevator.
STAMBERG: (Through automated recording) Third floor - newsroom.
AUBREY: We love to hear Susan Stamberg narrate our ride...
STAMBERG: (Through automated recording) Going down.
AUBREY: ...But breaking the elevator habit could pay off. A new meta analysis that includes data from hundreds of thousands of people finds a daily habit of climbing stairs is linked to a significantly lower likelihood of death from heart disease and a boost in longevity.
CARLIN LONG: It doesn't surprise me that people who exercise daily by stair climbing would have a benefit in terms of cardiovascular health.
AUBREY: That's Dr. Carlin Long, director of the Center for the Prevention of Heart and Vascular Disease at UC San Francisco. He says exercise is one of the best ways to prevent heart disease, and climbing stairs is a great way to build in short bursts of cardio. So how much is enough?
LONG: I think if people are able to achieve six to 10 flights of exercise on stairs a day, that would be a good target.
AUBREY: One study found six to 10 flights a day lowered the risk of cardiovascular disease by about 20% and lowered the risk of premature death. Long says this may be a good goal to reach towards if you're just starting out.
LONG: You have to create behaviors that get you off the couch. It is hard. Behavioral change is hard.
AUBREY: Dr. Manish Parikh is chief of cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. He says the minute you start climbing, the benefits begin to kick in.
MANISH PARIKH: Your heart rate goes up. Your breathing rate, respiratory rate goes up. Your circuitry status improves. And all of those have positive impacts.
AUBREY: Stair climbing is more intense than walking on a flat surface. And Dr. Tamara Horwich of UCLA Women's Cardiovascular Center says there's another benefit, too.
TAMARA HORWICH: Climbing stairs can be a wonderful mix of both aerobic exercise and resistance training.
AUBREY: Which is key. About 75% of adults in the U.S. don't get enough. She says if you use a Fitbit or an Apple Watch, these devices can be used to track stair climbing.
HORWICH: So maybe instead of just looking at steps, you can also look at the number of stairs climbed and try to increase that per day in addition to your steps.
AUBREY: You don't need a gym membership to climb stairs. Many people can do it at home, and to meet the recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day, the time you spend climbing steps counts towards that goal.
Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
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