We have known for a long time that activities like running are great for promoting general longevity, mainly by keeping the heart healthy, but that’s not all running and related activities can do for those in the later stages of life.  University researchers have sampled groups of middle-aged and early-senior Americans and found that running not only cuts down certain mortality rates by a large percentage, but also lessens the risk of certain cancers as well as diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Experts say it’s not just running that  provides these health benefits: any kind of vigorous physical activity will do. Just routine walking will boost the strength of joints and muscles and preserve the body’s abilities at an advanced age.
However, running does seem to have some curious tendency patterns toward other activities, according to some data from large research programs aimed at figuring out best health practices through demographics.  In one study of over-50s, volunteers took surveys based on a range of activities, and found that running leads toward more other kinds of exercise as well as other healthy activities like eating right.
Some would say this is only common sense based on the lifestyle tendencies of those who run, but from another perspective, it’s possible that the specific endorphin rush from running as a primal cardio activity influences other life decisions.  Studies showing runners as leaner and less likely to smoke are also subject to the same debate.
Another main part of studying the patterns and behaviors of runners is the attempt to answer questions about running related to long term disability.
Sure, it’s true that running on hard surfaces over an excessive period of time can harm bones and joints.  However, studies of runners who advanced in age found that although many may stop running, many of them also ‘gear down’ into other less joint-stressful activities, and in some case studies, that meant that runners as a group did not have more injuries than a control group: they had less.  That is, according to most experts, because runners who started at the appropriate time in their lives built up muscle and bone strength, and used that strength to negotiate the aging process better than others. The majority of them often did not continue to run until they suffered an injury, but instead naturally replaced high-stress injuries with low-stress ones, using good old common sense.
  The bottom line?  You don’t have to keep running your whole life – just like a physical job, there’s a time to hang it up as the body ages.  But, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of your fitness activities.  Research tells us a lot about the optimal use of running and how to benefit from it the most – and that’s good medicine.