Exercise And Mortality Rate Decrease
When it comes to mortality rates, being weak vs being strong is more impactful than smoking or not.
If we were to stack up every possible known risk factor—smoking, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, end-stage kidney disease, whatever—and we were to talk about how much of a hazard ratio these bring to you in terms of all-cause mortality, they're quite big.
You know they are quite big, increase in mortality:
- hypertension is about a 20% increase,
- type 2 diabetes is about a 30% increase.
- smoking is a 50% increase.
Being weak relative to being strong is about 250%, and having a very low V̇O₂ max in the bottom 25% of the population versus being in the top 2.5% of the population is about 400%.
So, when you line everything up, the two things that stand out the most are incredible cardiorespiratory fitness, as measured by V̇O₂ max, and strength. video/Peter-Attia
GPT validation of above
Current research supports Dr. Peter Attia's assertion that low muscle strength and poor cardiorespiratory fitness (as measured by V̇O₂ max) are significant predictors of increased mortality risk, potentially surpassing traditional risk factors like smoking. - GPT-4o/2025-Mar