Study: 'Use it, or lose it'

EXETER, England, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Middle-aged people, who had a reasonable level of physical activity, had less physical disability later in life, British researchers found.

Dr. Iain Lang of the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, England, studied 8,702 participants in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study and 1,507 people taking part in the English Longitudinal Study of Aging. Each subject was tracked for about six years.

The researchers found that middle-aged people who had been physically active were less likely to become unable to walk distances, climb stairs, maintain their sense of balance, stand from a seated position with their arms folded or sustain their hand grip as they got older.

Being overweight or obese was associated with an overall increased risk of physical impairment but, regardless of weight, people who engaged in heavy housework or gardening, who played a sport or who had a physically active job, were more likely to remain mobile later in life, Lang said.

"The findings were similar from the U.S. and the U.K., which suggests that they are universal," Lang said in a statement. "The second is that exercise in middle age does not just benefit people in terms of weight loss -- it also helps them to remain physically healthy and active later in life."