Image: Roen Kelly/Discover

It's a question we often ponder,
especially as we age: How many
years do I have left? Well, thanks to
Brazilian physician Claudio Gil
Araujo, there's now a simple test you
can perform right at home, in just a
few seconds, that could predict how
many years you have left to live,
according to Discover.

Araujo came up with the test after
noticing that many of his patients,
especially older ones, often have
difficulty with simple feats of balance
and strength, such as picking up
something off the floor or getting up
out of a chair. Since balance and
conditioning problems are known to
increase the risk of dangerous falls
and accidents (and can also harm
cardiovascular health), he wondered
if a patient's flexibility, balance and
strength could be used as a measure
of life expectancy.

His idea was that patients might be
more motivated to get in better
shape if they had a more tangible
way of conceptualizing how their
overall health was being affected by
their conditioning. If a patient is
simply told to get in shape, they're
not likely to change their behavior.

But if they're told "if you don't get
into better shape, you could be dead
in five years," they're apt to take
notice.

Of course, the test also needed to be
simple. If it required expensive
equipment or measuring devices, the
test probably wouldn't be accessible
to many people. So Araujo and
colleagues developed the sitting-rise
test, or SRT. It requires no equipment
whatsoever and can be performed in
seconds.

In fact, you can grab a friend try the
test out yourself right now. It's
recommended that you wear loose
or comfortable clothing. Begin by
standing upright in the middle of a
room. Without using your arms or
hands for leverage, carefully squat
into a cross-legged sitting position.

Once you're comfortable, attempt to
stand back up from the sitting
position — again, without using your
arms for help. A simple illustration
(above), provided by Discover, can
help you to visualize the steps.

The test is scored on a point scale
between 1 and 10 (5 points for
sitting, 5 more points for standing
back up). Each time you use an arm
or knee for help in balancing during
the test, you subtract one point from
10 possible points. Half a point is
subtracted each time you lose
balance, or when the fluidity of the
feat becomes clumsy.

It seems like a pretty rudimentary
test of conditioning, but Araujo found
that it could predict life expectancy
with alarming accuracy. He tested it
on more than 2,000 of his patients
aged 51 to 80, and found that people
who scored less than 8 points on the
test were twice as likely to die within
the next six years. Those who scored
three points or less were five times
more likely to die within that same
time period. Overall, each point
achieved in the test accounted for a
21-percent decrease in mortality.

Araujo's study was only performed
on patients older than 50, so the
results won't mean the same thing
for younger individuals taking the
test. But regardless of your age, the
test should provide a useful
benchmark for your overall health. If
you're younger than 50 and have
trouble with the test, it ought to be a
wake-up call. The good news is that
the younger you are, the more time
you have to get into better shape.

http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/this-simple-sitting-test-could-predict-how-long-you-will-live

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