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Most cycle-commuters will tell you cycling to work is the best way to get to and from work and it's probably doing you some good. However a recent major study, published in the British Medical Journal, suggests that the health benefits are staggering, slashing the risk of heart disease and cancer. FTFA:
Research has consistently shown that people who are less physically active are both more likely to develop health problems like heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and to die younger. Yet there is increasing evidence that physical activity levels are on the decline.
The problem is that when there are many demands on our time, many people find prioritising exercise difficult. One answer is to multi-task by cycling or walking to work. We've just completed the largest ever study into how this affects your health.
You can read an article here at The Conversation website and you the original research is here at the BMJ website.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Friday September 08 2017, @12:59PM (13 children)
This is the appealing time saving part. But the experience of working out at my gym is better than your description of cycling, the showers take care of the whole "arrive at work all sweaty" aspect, the HVAC takes care of the whole "the weather is only good outdoors for cycling roughly two months per year", I can carry a laptop a little easier in my car than on a bike, etc.
There are weird aspects of the story. The implication is waving ones legs repetitively in a circular pattern magically scares away cancer much like the gravitational fields of distant planets when I was born somehow determine the course of my entire life. Obviously its more of a multi-step "bicycling to work can theoretically be good exercise although in practice it isn't for most people" "good exercise leads to good shape" "good shape leads to long life" therefore tenuously "bicycling to work prevents cancer". Although to be honest breathing in all those exhaust fumes for hours while working hard must be very bad, so the exercise effect must be extremely strong to over rule the exhaust fume effect.
As a business idea, someone could build a class A RV with a small gym inside it, and use it as a commuter's taxi. I'm actually kinda surprised stuff like this doesn't already exist. Aside from a RV with a gym inside it, I could see a spa with massages and hot tubs, maybe a gentlemans club. Mass transit currently means cheap smelly mobile homeless shelter, but it doesn't necessarily have to. First class mass transit COULD be a thing... I'd be happy as a start with first class bus accommodations merely meaning a clean on-bus restroom with restroom attendant, comfy seats with laptop desk, and maybe some kind of steward selling me icy cold bottled water or coffee when they're not cleaning.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @01:30PM (8 children)
"the HVAC takes care of the whole "the weather is only good outdoors for cycling roughly two months per year""
Sahara or Alaska?
Here in Denmark we always complain about the weather, and 2017 has been especially bad, so I'm up to maybe four times the weather has been so bad that I've preferred getting into my car.
("Preferred" as in "before I bought a car I would have gotten on my bicycle anyway").
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @02:47PM (5 children)
Denmark is also flat.
A combination of factors are what make biking practical or impractical.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 08 2017, @03:27PM (4 children)
Bah! The only factor really at work here is the mental one. People are afraid to change, or go against their perception of how the people around them will judge them. On this subject as in so many other things humans can be so distressingly akin to cattle.
Sure, if you live in a mountain monastery in northern Greece, or in a lighthouse off the coast of Maine, or the middle of Death Valley then a bike probably isn't the commuting method you'd want to choose. But how many of us actually are constrained by such unusual circumstances?
You can bike up and down hills. There are things called lower gears and thigh muscles, which are large, massy things you usually only employ as makeshift drink coasters, and gluteus maximus, which can generate a ton of force but which most people nowadays use as seating. If you really want to be pathetic and weak you can attach an electric motor to a bike to get you up the tough inclines.
Don't bike if you don't want to, but please stop niggling naysaying based on nothing real. We don't need to encourage each other to be ninnies.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @05:00PM (1 child)
Don't let reality hinder you there... There are valid reasons yo not bike, safety being #1.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09 2017, @04:10PM
What good is being safe if you die of a heart attack at 50 due to lack of exercise?
It may depend on where you live, but the beneficial health effects far outweigh any dangers you face. This research was published by the British Medical Journal, so naturally would be focused on Britain. I would be surprised if there are places where cycling is a reasonable option to start with, where the health effects don't outweigh the dangers, but maybe they exist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @05:17PM (1 child)
Your knees will likely go bad before you retire. Your back, feet, and hips might go too.
One day you are athletic, and the next day you are in pain and facing the near-inevitability of putting on weight because you can't exercise well. You could fall while hiking, causing your knee to twist. (done it) You could fall while skiing. I got one knee messed up while peacefully lying in bed: my wife threw herself on me, thinking it would be romantic, and *SNAP* goes the knee. She actually cracked a bone.
I now have a bit of a limp. If you don't have one yet, consider yourself lucky.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @05:29PM
I should be fine. I don't have a wife, and I never leave my bed. I only drink weak tea and eat saltine crackers. I should live longer than Aristarchus!
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday September 08 2017, @03:04PM
Western Europe has fantastic weather, if you average it over the year, compared to much of America; the climate in Europe is very mild, which is why civilization there has been so historically successful compared to other places. We have hotter summers and colder winters in North America.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday September 08 2017, @05:48PM
Sahara or Alaska?
H for Alaska, V for both, AC for Sahara.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday September 08 2017, @05:46PM (2 children)
"bicycling to work can theoretically be good exercise although in practice it isn't for most people" "good exercise leads to good shape" "good shape leads to long life"
Looks like it's a correlation study. so it's more like: "People who bike to work die from cancer less."
(insert required correlation v. causation trope here)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09 2017, @12:24AM
Always something to be aware of when examining data, but I think this is the rare instance where there actually is a plausible mechanism for causation, and even more rare, the causation is in the direction the sensationalist author wants it to be.
The human body is meant to move. Sadly, I'm in the same boat as Justin Case up there. I biked to work for about a month before I gave up. I think SUVs were trying to see how close they could get to me without hitting me. I swear I came within half an inch of an SUV knocking my handlebars and sending me flying head over heels over bike at least once per mile.
I live close enough to work that if I feel like an hour walk, I can get there on time with a reasonable pace. Did that for a while too. Then something strange happened. I decided to buy a car new. Then I felt compelled to use my status symbol to get around everywhere.
In the USA (outside of the big city at least), only homeless people and children walk or ride bikes. So if you're not a child, people will assume you're homeless.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @03:36PM
Well if you die in a traffic accident you're a lot less likely to die of heart disease and cancer ;).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09 2017, @04:02PM
While true that a car can carry a laptop easier than you can while cycling, laptops aren't really that heavy and by themselves won't make that much difference. I also leave my laptop at work most of the time.
The fumes are actually worse in your car, your car's intake is closer to road level so picks up more exhaust emissions.
Other studies have indicated that the positive health effects of cycling far outweigh the negative health effect of pollution.
The sweat from cycling tends to dry off soon enough after getting to work and doesn't lead to me being smelly as long as I had a shower that morning and put on some deodorant. There are also showers at my office should I wish to use them.
My commute by bicycle is about 20 minutes, by car I can do it in 15, then I have to park and walk from the car park, which takes about 5 minutes, so timewise it is a wash.