Even before the Millennium, medical authorities were recommending we all get more daily exercise to optimize our cardio-vascular health. But now, new science has discovered that even a little of the right kind of exercise can go a long way…
A massive survey by the European Society of Cardiology reveals, “it’s not just how much you move, but how intensely you move that matters.”
What they did
An international team of researchers data-mined the health records of more than 96,000 subjects, chronicled in the UK Biobank study. It’s a long-term study in which subjects regularly report in detail on their heath and lifestyles.
They were looking for correlations between participants’ exercise habits and developments in their health profiles.
“We know that physical activity reduces the risk of chronic disease and premature death,” study spokesperson Professor Minxue Shen from the Xiangya School of Public Health at Central South University in Hunan, China explains. “And there is growing evidence that vigorous activity provides greater health benefits per minute than moderate activity. But questions remain about the import-ance of intense activity versus total physical activity.”
The team then compared Biobank records with participants’ likelihood of dying or developing eight serious conditions over the next seven years (major cardiovascular disease, irregular heartbeat, type 2 diabetes, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, liver disease, chronic respiratory diseases, chronic kidney disease and dementia).
What they found
The results showed that people who devoted a larger portion of their activity to vigorous movement had much lower risks across all conditions studied.
Individuals with the highest activity levels saw a 63 percent lower risk of dementia, a 60 percent low-er risk of type 2 diabetes, and a 46 percent lower risk of death. These benefits were observed even when the total time spent on vigorous activity was relatively small.
The takeaway
“Our findings suggest that making some of your physical activity vigorous can provide substantial health benefits,” the conclusion to the study report states. “This doesn’t require going to the gym. Adding short bursts of activity that make you slightly breathless into daily life, like taking the stairs quickly, walking fast between errands or playing actively with children, can make a real difference. Even 15 to 20 minutes per week of this kind of effort — just a few minutes a day — was linked to meaningful health benefits.
My take
According to this ‘new standard’ I have to get off my ever-expanding duff and add some more-intensive exercise to my daily walking regimen. I suspect I speak for many of us, in that respect…
~ Maggie J.