New Treadmill Test Reveals Life Expectancy

Who know how long we will live? Apparently, the treadmill does, and running on it for a few minutes can give doctors the numbers they need to predict your future, such as it is. Science Daily reports that after analyzing data from 58,000 heart stress tests, cardiologists at Johns Hopkins have come up with a new algorithm (called FIT) that can gauge long-term death risk in anyone based solely on treadmill exercise performance. Scores on the test ranged from negative 200 to positive 200, with those above 0 having lower mortality risk and those in the negative range facing highest risk of dying. Patients who scored 100 or higher had a 2 percent risk of dying over the next 10 years, while those with scores between 0 and 100 faced a 3 percent death risk over the next decade. In other words, two of 100 people of the same age and gender with a score of 100 or higher would die over the next decade, compared with three out of 100 for those with a fitness score between 0 and 100. People with scores between negative 100 and 0 had an 11 percent risk of dying in the next 10 years, while those with scores lower than negative 100 had a 38 percent risk of dying. Too confusing? A 45-year-old woman with a fitness score in the bottom fifth percentile is estimated to have a 38 percent risk of dying over the next decade, compared with 2 percent for a 45-year-old woman with a top fitness score.