For many of us who have been enjoying our
developed world Western diet, albeit with care, the annual physical is not
something we look forward to. You need to get more exercise is mentioned in
surgeries all over.
While
we make up our minds to do better, we look with envy at those amongst us going
out, rain or shine, to train for their next marathon. A couple of miles down
the road and we’re looking out for the next bus stop. But now it turns out we
should have been trying much earlier.
How
much earlier? According to Timpka et al
in PLoS ONE this week, we should have been hard at it in school physical ed. class,
especially if we happen to be female. This is a study from Sweden of 1712
people who were 16 in 1974 – 1976. Their health records from 2003 to 2007 were
put under the microscope along with their grades in PE.
The
stark result of the study was that poor health in the mid-forties for women
correlated with poor physical education grades at school. There wasn’t such a
correlation for men, though.
The
authors of the study have to do some mental gymnastics. They suggest that there
is a “bio-psycho-social” model that explains their findings, tying up poor PE
grades with habits like smoking, low fiber diet and putting on too much weight.
Why
not with boys? Well, it is suggested that the have a higher habitual activity
level. I guess they have playing soccer in mind rather than running after
girls.
I
think that they should revisit the cohort in another 30 years to ensure that
the data don’t change.
