If you were to track just one health metric, I think it should be this
Hey there!
VO2 max is the physical equivalent of the balance in your retirement accounts.
Except I think chances are very high that you have a good idea of what’s in your retirement account, but you don’t know your VO2 max.
VO2 max is a measure of your cardio-respiratory fitness. Technically it is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption attainable during physical exercise. It’s often used by athletes to measure their fitness, but it’s an even more powerful measurement when it comes to your health.
Today we’re going to talk why, including…
- Its ability to predict preventable death
- What happens if it gets too low over time
- And its associations with dementia
Let’s dive in!
VO2 Max predicts mortality
If you want to live a long and full life, then you need to make sure you don’t die early of a preventable cause.
The research here is quite conclusive. VO2 max predicts mortality better than…
- Smoking
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- Coronary artery disease
- Body Mass Index
- Lean muscle mass
- and more
The higher your VO2 max is, the less likely you are to die of a preventable cause.
And no other number comes close to showing you where you stand.
If it gets too low, you lose independence
A long life is much less satisfying if you can’t do the things that make life worth living. If you become dependent on others to do basic things for you, then the quality and meaning in your life can drop fast.
Consider this…
- If your VO2 Max drops below a certain level (~18 ml/kg/min in men; ~15 ml/kg/min in women), then simple tasks like climbing a flight of stairs, walking or carrying groceries now require 100% of your maximum physical effort.
- In untrained people, VO2 max decreases by about 10% per decade after the age of 20.
From there it becomes a math equation. If your VO2 max starts low at 40 years old and you stay sedentary for the next 3-4 decades, then the quality of your last decade of life will likely be very poor.
You won’t be able to get your own groceries.
Going up a flight of stairs will be a max effort endeavor.
You’ll be out of breath from basic tasks like getting dressed.
Your life will close in on you, and many just sit around and wait, wishing for the eventual end to come.
That’s no way to live, but unfortunately I’ve seen this in my PT patients and it is quite sad. The saddest part to me is that it didn’t need to be that way.
It’s also associated with cognitive function
Let’s say you live a long life, and you’re still physically able to take care of yourself. None of that matters if you don’t have your mind.
Dementia doesn’t just shorten life. It robs people of the ability to think, recognize the people they love, and experience the life they worked so hard to build. It is, to me, one of the cruelest possible endings to an otherwise full life.
The good news is that VO2 max is also linked to a reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia. The same aerobic fitness that keeps your heart and body running efficiently also appears to protect the brain as you age.
So to bring it all together, VO2 max is the single best benchmark for the three things you actually need to live a long, full life.
- Your ability to avoid preventable premature death and live a long life.
- Your ability to have the physical capacity to do the things you want in your last decade of life.
- Your ability to have the mental capacity to actually enjoy it.
Next week we’ll cover free and low cost ways you can estimate your VO2 max (and why you might want to measure it instead).
Take care,
P.S. Of the three threats above, one probably landed harder than the others. Feel free to hit reply or comment and share which one. If there’s a story behind why, I’d like to hear it.