Ekelund noted how physical activity affects the immune system, reduces the risk of inflammation, and may reduce blood pressure, among other health benefits. All of those changes are then associated with a reduction in risk of major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, which are \u201cthe major killers in Western societies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Just five more minutes can make a difference<\/p>\n
Ekelund and his team wanted to use devices to actually measure physical activity \u2013 versus self-reported data \u2013 so they could rule out the confounding factors (such as people who overestimate how much they actually move) that tend to influence these types of studies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to expand on the current knowledge,\u201d Ekelund said. \u201cIf all in the population made a small change, how many deaths could that potentially prevent during this follow-up period where we studied these individuals?\u201d<\/p>\n
Participants in the study were asked to wear activity trackers, with follow-ups averaging eight years. The researchers took other variables into account, such as history of diseases, age and body mass.<\/p>\n
The benefits increased with longer times spent exercising. For example, being active at moderate intensity for an additional 10 minutes per day was associated with a 15% reduction in all deaths among most adults during the follow-up period, the study found.<\/p>\n
Reducing sedentary time was also helpful. Data showed that decreasing inactivity by one hour among the majority of adults was associated with a 13% reduction in all deaths, and a 6% reduction among the least active adults in the follow-up period.<\/p>\n
Try small changes<\/p>\n
Amy W. Pollak, a general cardiologist who specialises in preventive cardiology at Mayo Clinic Florida, and who wasn\u2019t involved in the new research, said the finding is \u201cexciting because it\u2019s very tangible\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sometimes making \u201coptimal life choices\u201d can feel \u201coverwhelming when we\u2019re trying to balance work and life stressors, health issues, financial concerns and competing interests,\u201d Pollak said. \u201cThis type of study says there is good data to suggest based on this modelling, that just small, five-to-10 minute increases in moderate to vigorous activity can make a big impact on a hard endpoint, like mortality for populations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The authors of the study cautioned that these findings are meant to highlight potential benefits for the population as a whole and shouldn\u2019t be used as personalised exercise advice. They also acknowledged the need for more research in low- and middle-income countries.<\/p>\n
Speaking broadly, Ekelund emphasised that making realistic changes in your daily activity, especially if you aren\u2019t active to begin with, can lead to good health.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always difficult to change behaviours, and physical activity behaviour is no exception,\u201d Ekelund said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard, but if you build it up gradually, starting slow, it could be worthwhile. And for those who are already active, just continue being active.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ekelund noted how physical activity affects the immune system, reduces the risk of inflammation, and may reduce blood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[67688,142585,140081,14381,1742,2814,10957,177086,1154,1630,21627,21003,105,6582,4716,18642,20996,22128,457,10118,19271,3783,61939,9989,6093,32922,16,15,23622,7763],"class_list":{"0":"post-745194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-activity","9":"tag-adding","10":"tag-boost","11":"tag-could","12":"tag-daily","13":"tag-data","14":"tag-death","15":"tag-earlier","16":"tag-exercise","17":"tag-fitness","18":"tag-found","19":"tag-from","20":"tag-health","21":"tag-just","22":"tag-longevity","23":"tag-may","24":"tag-more","25":"tag-much","26":"tag-people","27":"tag-researchers","28":"tag-routine","29":"tag-save","30":"tag-that","31":"tag-this","32":"tag-to","33":"tag-tracker","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-using","37":"tag-your"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116021078545274229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}