Summary: Most people know that regular exercise is good for heart health and may even reduce cancer risk. A new study shows that even a few bursts of vigorous physical activity, like walking fast to the bus stand, may help reduce the risk of death due to cancer by 40% and cardiovascular disease by 49%.
These days people are more likely to die from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, or cancer, than from infection. Statistics show that almost 80% of deaths in developed nations occur due to non-infectious diseases.
One can significantly reduce the risk of such disorders as heart disease or cancer through lifestyle changes. Thus, for example, it is well known that regular exercise and dietary measures may significantly reduce the risk of these health issues.
However, let us be practical. Most people cannot spend an hour or two in a gym. Moreover, many find it difficult to cook at home, and thus they need to eat whatever is readily available. It means that despite the awareness regarding the health benefits of lifestyle interventions like exercise and diet, most people fail to implement them.
Hence, researchers are looking for more practical ways to lower the risk of non-communicable diseases like heart disease or cancer. For example, recent studies show that one does not need to spend hours in the gym to enjoy the benefits of exercise. Instead, they might engage in high-intensity exercise for 15-20 minutes a day, like running at high speed for a minute, then resting for two, and repeat it a few times.
However, engaging in high-intensity exercise for 20 minutes daily is challenging for many people. But now, a new study shows that there are other ways of engaging in vigorous physical activity. Thus, for example, one can walk fast to the job or use stairs instead of a lift.
Fortunately, a new study shows that one does not need to spend hours to enjoy the health benefits of physical activity. It appears that even a few bursts of physical activity a day may help significantly. Thus, for example, even a burst of physical activity lasting a minute or two may help, especially if there are few such bursts during the day.
Thus, for example, if one is working on the fifth floor and can just use stairs to go up and down a few times a day, it would be as good as high-intensity training. Moreover, it may have some health benefits quite similar to spending 45 minutes in a gym.
So, how did the researchers carry out this study? For the study, researchers used the physical activity data available from the wearables. Wearables like smartwatches are now generating massive health data, which can be used to understand many things, like the role of staying active during the day in preventing heart disease.
In the study, researchers used the data of 25,000 people who were classified as people who do not exercise. However, these people engaged in short bursts of physical activities, which researchers called vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA).
The study had many interesting findings. They found that most of these individuals engaged in VILPA for 45 seconds to a minute. On average, these individuals had about eight VILPA bouts lasting for a total of about 6 minutes a day. They found that just 6 minutes of VILPA was almost as good for health as regular exercise. The health outcomes of these 25,000 individuals were comparable to 62,000 people who exercise regularly.
Researchers found that the greater number of bouts of VILPA, the more significant the benefits. Thus, a higher degree of physical activity was associated with greater benefits.
The study found that just a few bouts of VILPA a day lasting for four to five minutes were enough to reduce cancer-related death risk by 40% and the risk of death by cardiovascular disease by 49%.
Undoubtedly, these findings are incredible. These findings show that if one cannot engage in regular exercise, just a few bouts of vigorous physical activity may also help. Thus, brisk walks for 45 secs to a minute done a few times a day may even help. This study shows that it is important to stay physically active, and there are many ways of achieving that.
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