New Delhi, Aug 21 (PTI) Men with low physical flexibility may face nearly double the risk of death, while women with low flexibility could have nearly five times the risk of dying compared to those with greater flexibility, according to a new research.

The researchers examined almost 3,140 people, aged 46-65 years, and developed a body flexibility score, which was arrived at after assessing the participants' motion in 20 movements, including seven related to joints.

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"Being aerobically fit and strong and having good balance have been previously associated with low mortality. We were able to show that reduced body flexibility is also related to poor survival in middle-aged men and women," teh study's corresponding author Claudio Gil S. Araujo, Exercise Medicine Clinic-CLINIMEX, Brazil.

The findings are published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.

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Over an average follow-up period of almost 13 years, the researchers, including those at the Exercise Medicine Clinic-CLINIMEX, Brazil, found that body flexibility was inversely related with death risk and was nearly 10 per cent higher for survivors compared with non-survivors in both men and women.

The authors found that flexibility among women was 35 per cent higher than that among men.

They also found that among those with a low physical flexibility score, men had a 1.87-time higher risk of dying, while women had a 4.78-time higher risk of dying, compared to those with a high physical flexibility score.

Araujo pointed out that as flexibility tends to decrease with ageing, it may be worth paying more attention to flexibility exercises and routinely including assessments of body flexibility as part of all health-related physical fitness evaluations.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)