I love to run — it’s my sport, my form of mental health, my most important self-care. And, like all devotees of a particular athletic endeavor, I think my form of exercise is the best one. When I’m looking for confirmation of that, it’s everywhere: The world is full of studies that show that running is correlated with good health and living longer. However, I also love data, and I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can separate correlation from causality. Unfortunately, nearly all of the data that tells me running is the best kind of exercise is subject to the problem of confusing correlation and causality. People who run are, for the most part, different from people who do not; they tend to engage in other positive health behaviors, like not smoking and eating more vegetables. Without randomized trials, we really can’t be sure if it’s the running or the rest of what they do that makes them healthier. Despite this, there are many research studies and a lot of media coverage that tell us that one kind of exercise — running, or something else — is the “best” kind of exercise. As a runner, I love this. As a researcher, it drives me nuts. In my recent essay for Times Opinion, I wrote about what we can actually know from data about exercise. The main point: The best exercise — based on data — is the one you can stick with.
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