When you can’t fit your entire workout into a super busy day, do you simply forgo activity? If the answer is yes, you should rethink that. Just 11 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity per day can reduce the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, or premature death, according to a new study.
Aerobic activities include walking, dancing, running, cycling, and swimming. You can measure the intensity level of an activity by your heart rate and the intensity of your breathing while moving. Generally, if you can talk but not sing during an activity, the exercise intensity is moderate. But if you can’t hold a conversation while exercising, the activity may be considered intense.
Higher levels of physical activity have been associated with lower rates of premature death and chronic diseases, according to previous research. However, determining how risk levels for these outcomes are affected by the amount of exercise someone does has been more difficult. To explore this impact, scientists from the University of Cambridge in the UK analyzed data from 196 studies, totaling over 30 million adult participants who were followed for an average of 10 years. The results of this latest study were published on Tuesday (18) in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The study primarily focused on participants who met the minimum recommended 150 minutes of exercise per week, or 22 minutes per day. Compared to inactive participants, adults who engaged in 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity per week had a 31% lower risk of dying from any cause, a 29% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, and a 15% lower risk of dying from cancer.
The same amount of exercise was associated with a 27% lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and a 12% lower risk regarding cancer.
Even people who did only half the minimum recommended amount of physical activity benefited. Accumulating 75 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week—about 11 minutes of activity per day—was associated with a 23% lower risk of premature death. Being active for 75 minutes weekly was also enough to reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases by 17% and cancer by 7%.
Now the curious thing is that beyond 150 minutes per week, any additional benefits were smaller.
The authors’ findings confirm the World Health Organization’s position that doing some physical activity is better than doing nothing, even if you don’t meet the recommended amounts of exercise.
“One in 10 premature deaths could have been prevented if everyone reached half of the recommended level of physical activity,” the authors wrote in the study. Furthermore, “10.9% and 5.2% of all incident cases of CVD (cardiovascular disease) and cancer would have been avoided.”
Source: CNN