Of course it’s worth including a caveat here that there are any number of factors which can impact on how long each of us has before we kick the bucket.
It could be lifestyle – this factor is unlikely to help if you smoke 20 cigarettes a day, live off junk food, and never exercise.
Researchers found a correlation in their test subjects. (Mireya Acierto / Getty)
Genetics are also important, you could be the fittest person around but if you have a genetic predisposition to cancer then well, bad luck, unfortunately.
Nonetheless researchers in Brazil have found one thing which could be a strong indicator of someone’s life expectancy – just remember that all the other health factors also still apply here.
There are already ways to measure an individual’s risk of certain conditions which come with their own benefits and flaws.
For example, Body Mass Index doesn’t account for things like high muscle mass or pre-existing conditions.
Now however researchers have come up with another index – the ‘Flexindex’. Catchy!
Flexibility could be an indicator of life expectancy. (Olga Rolenko / Getty)
If you hadn’t already guessed, this is a way to measure someone’s joint mobility and what that might say about general health.
Brazilian researchers assessed the joint mobility score, the ‘Flexindex’, of a group of 3,100 healthy middle-aged adults.
People in the group were asked to carry out a series of 20 different movements.
Sports medicine physician and study author Dr. Claudio Gil S. Araújo said: “Being aerobically fit and strong and having good balance have been previously associated with low mortality. We were able to show that reduced body flexibility is also related to poor survival in middle-aged men and women.”
Doing regular stretches is a great way to maintain flexibility. (Harbucks / Getty)
He added: “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first cohort study to show that a reduced level of body flexibility … is related to higher mortality in a large middle-aged cohort of men and women.”
There are already ways to measure an individual’s risk of certain conditions which come with their own benefits and flaws.
For example, Body Mass Index doesn’t account for things like high muscle mass or pre-existing conditions.
Now however researchers have come up with another index – the ‘Flexindex’. Catchy!
Flexibility could be an indicator of life expectancy. (Olga Rolenko / Getty)
If you hadn’t already guessed, this is a way to measure someone’s joint mobility and what that might say about general health.
Brazilian researchers assessed the joint mobility score, the ‘Flexindex’, of a group of 3,100 healthy middle-aged adults.
People in the group were asked to carry out a series of 20 different movements.
Sports medicine physician and study author Dr. Claudio Gil S. Araújo said: “Being aerobically fit and strong and having good balance have been previously associated with low mortality. We were able to show that reduced body flexibility is also related to poor survival in middle-aged men and women.”
Doing regular stretches is a great way to maintain flexibility. (Harbucks / Getty)
He added: “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first cohort study to show that a reduced level of body flexibility … is related to higher mortality in a large middle-aged cohort of men and women.”
