“This is why I can say with absolute certainty that nothing compares to exercise”...CONTINUE READING
He continued: “For me to explain this, I have to explain a technical term called a hazard ratio… it comes from looking at a group of people, following them into the future and looking at the rate at which they die.
“So a hazard ratio is a number. If that number is 1.5, it means that there is a 50 per cent increase in the risk of death for one group versus the other.” He then provided an example of comparing smokers to non-smokers and their hazard ratio of getting lung cancer – which he reveals is about 10 – meaning you’re “ten times more likely to get lung cancer if you’re a smoker than if you’re not.”
He went on: “Now if you look at the hazard ratio across the course of life, for all causes of death, it is about 1.5. Meaning a smoker is about 50 per cent more likely to die in any given year than a non smoker.
“What if you have type 2 diabetes? Everybody understands that having type 2 diabetes is very problematic, people are about twice the risk more or less of cancer, heart disease and maybe one and a half times the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. But when it comes to all causes of mortality, it is about a 1.4 hazard ratio – 40 per cent increase.
“That’s a stark number. It means that at any moment in time, if you take two people who are ever and otherwise always identical, but one has type 2 diabetes and one doesn’t, this person has a 40 per cent risk of dying in the coming year.”
The health expert listed off a few more examples, including blood pressure compared to normal blood pressure being a hazard ratio of about 1.2 (20 per cent). “But what if it is someone who has end-stage kidney disease?” The physician asked.
“It’s about 2.7,” he revealed. “That’s a 170 per cent increase in all cause mortality in the subsequent year.” Dr Attia then compared hazard ratio to people who exercise to people who don’t.
“What happens if I take a group of 50 year olds, pick any age, any sex and we’re going to take the top 15-20 per cent in strength and compare them to the bottom 15-20 per cent in strength for that age and sex – what’s the hazard ratio there?” The doctor asked Bartlett.
“1.1 to 1.2?” He asked. Dr Attia replied: “It’s three. Meaning it’s a 200 per cent difference in all cause mortality… So this is why I can say with absolute certainty that nothing compares to exercise. Nothing compares to having high muscle mass and high muscle strength. They are more beneficial for you than any bad thing you can think of that’s bad for you.”
While going into depth on the importance of strength and muscle mass, he added: “I put them into two buckets, structural and metabolic, let’s start with the latter. Muscles are where you dispose of glucose.
“Our ability to metabolize glucose and regulate glucose levels is central to our existence on this planet… the most important part of blood sugar regulation is having muscles that are big enough to put the glucose into and are insulin sensitive enough to respond to the signal of insulin.”
Glucose is only stored in two places in our bodies – the liver and in muscles. However, the doctor confirms the muscles store 8- per cent of it. Bartlett replied: “Okay, so muscles are really good for glucose regulation because it gives the sugar more places to hide basically.”
While discussing how fragility can impact our lives the older we get, Dr Attia says the ratio increases massively as we enter our 60s and 70s, due to a higher loss of function. “Once you hit the age of 65, if you fall, and you break your hip or your femur – your long bone in your leg – there is a 15-30 per cent chance you will be dead within the next 12 months.”
