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Getting up off your duff can add almost four years to your life, according to a new analysis of data from the long-running Framingham Heart Study. Although many previous studies have shown a range of health benefits from physical activity—from weight loss to reducing the risk of illness to keeping the mind sharp with aging—this is the first to directly calculate the effect of exercise on lifespan. The major contributor to the more-active subjects’ longer lives was a postponing of cardiovascular disease, the nation’s number-one killer.
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