Cycling can seriously improve your health!

The following extracts come from a Cycling & Health Briefing Paper for the Regional Cycling Development Team. Commissioned by AEA Technology and written by Nick Cavill, independent consultant and health promotion advisor to the Regional Cycling Development Team, and Dr. Adrian Davis, independent consultant on transport and health.

Nick and Adrian are thanked for allowing their work to be included in the Bristol Cycling Campaign Newsletter.

There is now an extremely strong body of research to support the links between regular physical activity and good health. The first study on this subject in the 1950s found that physically active bus conductors had far lower rates of heart disease than physically inactive bus drivers, despite similar backgrounds. Since then numerous other studies have reported similar observations, which were reviewed in a landmark report by the US Surgeon General.

Regular physical activity improves health in the following ways:

  • Reduces the risk of dying prematurely
  • Reduces the risk of dying prematurely from heart disease
  • Reduces the risk of developing diabetes
  • Reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure
  • Helps reduce blood pressure in people who already have high blood pressure
  • Reduces the risk of developing colon cancer
  • Reduces feelings of depression and anxiety
  • Helps control weight
  • Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints
  • Helps older people become stronger and better able to move about without falling
  • Promotes psychological well-being

Physical activity is also associated with improved subjective well-being, mood and emotions. These effects are seen in populations of all ages and are independent of socio-economic or health status. Physical activity can also improve self esteem and results in positive changes in various aspects of physical self-perceptions such as body image or physical self-worth. Active individuals also report fewer symptoms of anxiety or emotional distress and report improved sleep patterns.

Inactive people are more likely to develop clinically defined depression. Physical activity is effective in reducing clinical depression and has been shown to be at least as effective as traditional treatments such as psychotherapy. Those who maintain physical activity for six months report less use of medication and are more likely to recover than those solely on medication.

Cycling is clearly a form of physical activity, but it has a number of specific qualities that effect the potential for improving health.

Research from Finland provides some of the strongest evidence for the health benefits of cycling. Two studies suggest that journeys to and from work by bicycle provide exercise of sufficient intensity and duration to improve fitness and health, and that travel by bicycle provides greater increases in measured fitness than does walking.

The Copenhagen Heart Study, which involved 13,375 women and 17,265 men aged between 20 ­ 93 years who were randomly selected. Of these, 14,976 cycled regularly and of which 6,954 cycled to work. The average time spent cycling in those who did cycle to work was three hours a week. The study found that cycling has a strong protective function.

Researchers concluded that:

even after adjustment for other risk factors (such as smoking), including leisure time physical activity, those who did not cycle to work experienced a 38% higher mortality rate than those who did.

This is a very important finding as it provides direct evidence that regular cyclists are likely to live longer than non cyclists.