Swedes Say Play Golf – Live Longer
Could it be that the more golf you play, the longer you’ll live?
If you do an online search for life expectancy and golf, you’ll find scads of news articles claiming that golfers live longer. Researchers even state it improves mental health, not just physical health. Golf is sociable, and the research findings on mental health and and an active social life are uniformly positive.
One large study, done by a Swedish medical university and published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, looked at a huge sampling of people. They had data from from over 300,000 golfers. The findings clearly showed that golf has positive health benefits. The study determined that the health benefits equate to an increased life expectancy of five years!
If you read the article, and others you can find using online search, you’ll find even more interesting stuff. Golfers from blue-collar professions are the safest, and see a greater benefit than golfers from white-collar professions. The benefits are there regardless of social group, age, or sex. And this is really fascinating: The lower your handicap, the greater the health benefit. Seems that in order to maintain a lower handicap you need to play more golf. (Shameless promotion here: Playing more golf at a private golf club like Sierra View pencils out financially over playing more golf at public courses.)
Take up golf, play at walkable courses, increase your circle of friendships, and enjoy what could be a longer, more joyful life.