We all know exercise is good for us, but how good? Is it really that important to exercise? This has actually been quantified and results are pretty shocking! A great study in 1989 looked at over 13,000 people across 8 years to determine if being fit actually made a difference. And how big of a difference. ➡ It was found that the rate of death from any cause in fit people was ~25% of that in unfit people. That's a pretty stark contrast. That means if you looked at 100 people that passed away during the 8 years of the study, 80 of those were unfit and 20 were fit. That's more than a coin flip! And this study accounted for "age, smoking habit, cholesterol level, systolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose level, parental history of coronary heart disease." Even after adjusting for all those things, the 25% statistic remained. Fitness matters. So how did being fit help? No surprise: it reduced heart disease and cancer which are the two leading causes of death in the US. Yet another case for physical fitness being the fountain of youth.