Karate cuts 10 - 15 years of your lifespan

[mal103]

If compared with a health freak, salad eating, fitness maniac who lives every minute to live longer then I would much prefer to eat, drink, be merry and train often in Karate.

I would rather enjoy 85 years doing what I liked than live 100 years making sure I lived to a 100.

[brickshooter]

Karate is just another form of exercise. A reasonable amount is good. Excessive exercise is bad. The benefits and detriment is comparable to any other form of exercise.

If you spar excessively, I could see joint issues. If you train at the professional level, I could see heart problems. Like many sports, these are common results of excessive training.

[Wastelander]

The vast majority of dedicated martial artists that I am aware of have outlived the average life expectancy, or are likely to do so. I would be curious as to the way he went about his research. I know a University did a study on the affects of Sanchin, and it seems to have the exact same effect on the organs as barbell squats, so that can't be it unless there is a study that shows barbell squats are equally as bad for your organs. Exercise is typically good for you, so the general practice of karate shouldn't be any worse for you than jogging. I could see contact sparring potentially being an issue, but no worse than the hits people take in American football or rugby.

The head of my organization just retired at the age of 93 due to health issues that are unrelated to his training, and he still practices a bit even though he isn't teaching anymore. My great grandfather died of a stroke at 93, had several heart attacks and strokes throughout his life before that, and could barely get around his house or garden due to general weakness and Parkinson's disease. If I make it to 93, I'd like to do it in the condition of Nakazato Shugoro, rather than the condition of my great grandfather, if I can help it.

[kensei]

If you look at the research that was done he was looking at the old instructors and forgot that times have changed. No longer are Karate instructors, for the most part, poor people that dont have access to health care and good solid nutrition.

Karate would be like any other sport, if you do the sport in moderation all the way it will make you live longer, ONLY if you have access to things that the old instructors did not.

I would assume that we will still have people die young while training in Karate due to poor nutrition and no medical intervention...but they would die young regardless.

The theory if flawed! The research is skewed and you could just as easily say that Japanese men die much sooner than non asians of the age catagory or that Americans with no health care (poorer) have a lower life expectancy than UK based people because of the health care system or that left handed drivers in the states have a lower life expectancy than right handed Canadians......I have read research papers that make conclusions based on what they say is solid evidence and shot it down because they assume things based on information they "see" and not what is real!

[mal103]

You can get any results you want from the right data and how many pieces of the data you want to include.

Al Gore convinced everyone we were all about to fry from global warming from driving cars too much, soo much of the data used was rubbish or small parts of it. We're now all going to die from climate change - not that the climate has ever changed before until we came along.

[JasonA]

Jason Armstrong here, the author mentioned above. Some of the comments here are very good, and all are covered off in the book in detail, backed up by over 270 university/research papers/publications and raw data collection. Other comments listed above are mere speculation, which lack a reading of the research and guess about the methodology. As for the numbers quoted above, they are not correct and again any numbers should always be referenced to published, peer reviewed literature. Our study, included numerous contributing clinicians, and a 2nd key author from the University of South Australia, and it used an evidenced based approach analyzing the data of the lives of 118 lifelong karate-ka who were 8th dan(s), style founders or successors. It factors in differences in regions, eras of training and compares to athletes of other sports and sedentary people in the same regions. Someone above asked for the link, but I don't think this forum lets me list any of them, but I do encourage people to use facts and understand something before critiquing it, after all that is the Way of Karate, to seek truth, not guess about it... I hope the above helps clear up some of this discussion thread.

[andym]

So, Karate shortens life span. Better 70 active years than an extra 10 of infirmity and illness ! That if it is true, still not seen any of the research, the book isn't available here in GB.

[JasonA]

The book is available in the UK, in fact it can be shipped anywhere - a couple of different sites offer it. Hope that helps.

[lowereastside]

My 3 Cents - Again - Many karate teacher's have lived into their 80's and 90's. And many have passed in their 50's and 60's. There are to many factors to consider - life style - personal tragedy - luck of the draw ( not being exposed to something like asbestos or other harmful chemicals or materials ) - stress - genetics - not having the advancements in medicine ............ An example - many individuals have said that Sanchin in Goju karate is harmful to one's health - Chojun Miyagi and his teacher Kenryo Higaonna died in their mid 60's. However, many of their students lived into their 80's and one or two reached 90. So is Sanchin kata or Goju in general bad for one's health? IMHO - NO! But that is my opinion - others may disagree - and that's fine.

[mal103]

Sorry to be critical but a study of millions of Karateka, many thousands who have trained for many years and you pick 118?

Amongst other studies you compare them to other athletes?

I'm afraid I think you need to widen the poll before claiming shockers like Karate knocks years off your life, again this is skewed as you automatically think of fat slobs who can live longer by not doing Karate?

I know a few senior instructors who are not super fit, enjoy their food/drink and have gotten comfortable out the front, we even had one similar in our Dojo and they were struggling to keep up when in the line training with us. So if you researched lots of people who meet this "type" you may be right!

I train with someone near 60 and can still run rings around me, this weekend I trained with 30 odd people who were mostly older than me, one just a pensioner, I didn't see any signs of any of them slowing down during our training day.

If you've managed to research people who do Karate all their lives and die younger than some athletes then are we really interested? Most people should be concerned with their journey and their training rather than stats, everyone I know are confident that training will prolong their lives.

I'm only 44 but already know plenty of people my age who act like they are 20 years older because they ignore any sort of exercise - I know I will outlive most of them, so long as I stay away from walking in front of buses!