Plenty of people dread their commute to work every day but what if there was a way to use that precious time trekking to the office to actually help you live longer? Spoiler: there is.
A recent study published in the British Medical Journal found that people who biked to work every day were 41 % less likely to die early than those who drove or took public transportation.
A group of researchers studied 260,000 people in the UK and took a closer look at how they chose to get to work every day: by biking, walking or taking public transport, and documented their answers, keeping track of events like heart attacks, cancer, and deaths over five years.
People who biked to work had a much better prognosis than those who did no physical activity during their commute. Even cyclists who only biked part of their commute every week had a 24% lower risk of early death than those who didn’t.
The reasons are pretty straightforward. People who chose to cycle to work usually live farther than those who walk and biking to work burns calories, helping the study participants meet the recommended guidelines for physical activity each month.
The researchers hope this new study might spur people to change the way they choose to travel every day, incorporating biking or walking into their daily routine. It’s an easy shift, one that doesn’t require any kind of gym membership or commitment, but if using two wheels to get to work instead of four might just help you live longer, it seems worth a try.
