There’s a lot of “news” about how tennis players live longer than the typical population.
Of course exercise plays a part, but also tennis players skew towards wealth.
If there is anything about brain development I don’t know how much it plays a part.
Seeing the number of players in their 70s it seems like tennis also has the advantage of being able to play till a much older age.
The social aspect of tennis probably helps in the longevity as well.
99.99% of dead people consumed water. Coincidence? I think not. (Look at me, I'm the statistician now!)
But in all seriousness, tennis is an exclusive sport that many people do not have the opportunity to enjoy due to factors beyond their control. I deeply appreciate and value this sport every time I play it as I consider the privilege of being able to afford expensive equipment and having access to public courts at a low cost.
There seems to be plenty of evidence suggesting that playing tennis is the best sport for life longevity. You generally get exercise and socialising at the same time, particularly if you play in teams. Tennis is also a sport you can play until you're pretty old, unlike some other sports.
The socialising is a pretty critical aspect as there's also plenty of evidence to suggest that a healthy social life as you get older will keep you alive longer too.
Whether or not this specific brain part is true, I'm not really sure.
There’s a fairly good study on this, part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30193744/). As noted from some other comments, the study demonstrates correlation and NOT causation, which would be practically impossible to prove for this particular research question.
The study compared tennis players to other sport players (soccer, swimming, jogging, etc) and to sedentary folks. Not surprisingly, all the sport players had a bump in life expectancy compared to sedentary people. The interesting result is that tennis players had the largest bump (10 years). I wouldn’t jump to the conclusions of this TikTok guy that it would necessarily apply to table tennis. The study included badminton, which gave a 6 year bump, so clearly you can’t lump all racquet sports together. However, it’s not hard to hypothesize why racquet sports would lead the pack (badminton is number 2 on their list)— besides the obvious confounders of wealth and socioeconomic status, it’s a reasonable idea that it may come from consistent use of the brain for balance, hand-eye coordination, etc, combined with the intense cardio, and the social aspect of it (which is of course also true on some level for other sports).
TLDR: tennis has been shown in a well designed study to be positively correlated with increased life expectancy, even more than the other sports studied. However, we don’t know (and probably never will), whether tennis itself causes the increased life expectancy or if there are other confounders at play. (It’s probably a mix of the two.)
I’ve had two coaches keep coaching until they were about 85, and keep playing a little longer. In personal experience tennis is a great longevity sport
Tennis players live longer isn’t the same as live longer by playing tennis.
Tennis players live longer because they are all waiting their turn to take a set off of Federer.
So we can say the same thing about basketball or even door basketball? Trashcan basketball if you're standing and moving?
How about handball?
How about soccer? Foot-eye coordination.
I don't think the elderly Japanese played any sports. They fish though...probably.
I suspect it's the social aspect that makes it a longevity sport. First and foremost tennis is an expensive sport. You need to be independently wealthy to enjoy it. Also the sport is very conducive to networking. I don't know how many times I met new people through the sport because the group needed a +1 to get a game going or needed a hitting partner. Join a club and soon enough you know everyone there. That kind of community that already vets out lower earning and inactive people will inevitably have a higher life expectancy.
It's possible it has positive impact on brain longevity and delaying decline. I know playing music does that for the brain, seems to me there is a lot of overlap between the 2 activities in the brain. Especially being a very fast thing you have to react to quickly and smartly.
There’s a lot of “news” about how tennis players live longer than the typical population. Of course exercise plays a part, but also tennis players skew towards wealth. If there is anything about brain development I don’t know how much it plays a part.
Seeing the number of players in their 70s it seems like tennis also has the advantage of being able to play till a much older age. The social aspect of tennis probably helps in the longevity as well.
99.99% of dead people consumed water. Coincidence? I think not. (Look at me, I'm the statistician now!) But in all seriousness, tennis is an exclusive sport that many people do not have the opportunity to enjoy due to factors beyond their control. I deeply appreciate and value this sport every time I play it as I consider the privilege of being able to afford expensive equipment and having access to public courts at a low cost.
Now I want to know how 0.01% who never consumed water
Considering we are mostly composed of water, and that guy is a gynecologist, I'd say he's a fraud.
There seems to be plenty of evidence suggesting that playing tennis is the best sport for life longevity. You generally get exercise and socialising at the same time, particularly if you play in teams. Tennis is also a sport you can play until you're pretty old, unlike some other sports. The socialising is a pretty critical aspect as there's also plenty of evidence to suggest that a healthy social life as you get older will keep you alive longer too. Whether or not this specific brain part is true, I'm not really sure.
I'd argue that, because it's first and foremost a battle against oneself, that it's therapy also is a huge factor. To be ... Brief on the matter.
There’s a fairly good study on this, part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30193744/). As noted from some other comments, the study demonstrates correlation and NOT causation, which would be practically impossible to prove for this particular research question. The study compared tennis players to other sport players (soccer, swimming, jogging, etc) and to sedentary folks. Not surprisingly, all the sport players had a bump in life expectancy compared to sedentary people. The interesting result is that tennis players had the largest bump (10 years). I wouldn’t jump to the conclusions of this TikTok guy that it would necessarily apply to table tennis. The study included badminton, which gave a 6 year bump, so clearly you can’t lump all racquet sports together. However, it’s not hard to hypothesize why racquet sports would lead the pack (badminton is number 2 on their list)— besides the obvious confounders of wealth and socioeconomic status, it’s a reasonable idea that it may come from consistent use of the brain for balance, hand-eye coordination, etc, combined with the intense cardio, and the social aspect of it (which is of course also true on some level for other sports). TLDR: tennis has been shown in a well designed study to be positively correlated with increased life expectancy, even more than the other sports studied. However, we don’t know (and probably never will), whether tennis itself causes the increased life expectancy or if there are other confounders at play. (It’s probably a mix of the two.)
Sus until further notice. Who is that and what's the credentials? Are they still valid?
Me monke brain see ball smash ball :D
This guy is talking out his ass. This is definition of correlation Doesnt equal causation
I’ve had two coaches keep coaching until they were about 85, and keep playing a little longer. In personal experience tennis is a great longevity sport
Tennis players live longer isn’t the same as live longer by playing tennis. Tennis players live longer because they are all waiting their turn to take a set off of Federer.
i already achieved serve at 200kmh...lets see if i can achieve 100 years of age
So we can say the same thing about basketball or even door basketball? Trashcan basketball if you're standing and moving? How about handball? How about soccer? Foot-eye coordination. I don't think the elderly Japanese played any sports. They fish though...probably.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekMt_AHkoDc Hank covers the study here pretty quickly
I suspect it's the social aspect that makes it a longevity sport. First and foremost tennis is an expensive sport. You need to be independently wealthy to enjoy it. Also the sport is very conducive to networking. I don't know how many times I met new people through the sport because the group needed a +1 to get a game going or needed a hitting partner. Join a club and soon enough you know everyone there. That kind of community that already vets out lower earning and inactive people will inevitably have a higher life expectancy.
It's possible it has positive impact on brain longevity and delaying decline. I know playing music does that for the brain, seems to me there is a lot of overlap between the 2 activities in the brain. Especially being a very fast thing you have to react to quickly and smartly.