Why don’t people exercise more? The list of excuses is long indeed. “I’m too tired.” “I don’t like to sweat.” “It’s boring.” And probably the number one excuse: “I don’t have time.”
So, for those who claim to be time-starved, here’s question. Do you have five to ten minutes a day to spare? Because, if you do, new research shows you can add years to your life.
Data from the National Institute of Health (NIH) demonstrates how 10 minutes of daily exercise can extend the lifespan of the average 65-year-old by nearly two years.
To corroborate the impact of modest exercise on longevity, we turn to this recent article from the Washington Post. Reporter Taylor Dutch discusses current studies that should just about eliminate any excuses that still keep us from some form of regular movement. Her article shows that relatively tiny incremental changes in our daily routine can potentially add years to our lives, and (as the saying goes) add life to our years. Let’s take a stroll through her article.
Small, Achievable Changes Can Help You Live Longer
Dutch begins, “Just a slight increase in moderate-intensity physical activity, such as walking at a brisk pace for five minutes a day, may help people live longer, a new study suggests.” This study was published in the medical journal The Lancet this month, says Dutch.
In it, the researchers examined the way “small, achievable changes in physical activity” might add to overall longevity. “They used data from more than 135,000 adults in Europe and the United States who wore activity trackers for several years,” she writes.
Five Minutes of Brisk Walking Reduces Death Rate by 10 Percent
Five minutes might not seem like long enough to do anything of note, but according to the study, “walking briskly”—which is a pace of about 3 to 4.5 mph—for an extra five minutes every day can prevent early death. Among the study participants, this extra five minutes a day of walking was linked to about 10 percent fewer deaths in the average 8.2 years of the study’s follow-up period.
“Researchers also found that the least active people are likely to get the most benefit, with five extra minutes linked to an estimated 6 percent fewer deaths in this group,” Dutch writes. “And reducing inactivity by at least 30 minutes every day was linked to 7 percent fewer deaths in the follow-up period.”
Ulf Ekelund, a professor of physical activity and health at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, was the lead author of the Lancet study. He says of the results, “Every movement counts, and as soon as you start doing any activity, you have so many different physiological changes in the body.”
Physical Activity Cuts Inflammation and Lowers Blood Pressure
According to Ekelund, exercise promotes overall health through—among other benefits—its effect on the immune system, reduction in risk of inflammation, and potential reduction of blood pressure. These changes are linked with less danger in a body developing major chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease and cancer, considered “the major killers in Western societies,” says Ekelund.
The NIH study cited above confirms this finding. It states that older individuals need to be active but can achieve a significant reduction in mortality risk even with moderate exercise. “Regular physical activity also has been associated with lower rates of functional decline,” the NIH study reports.
New Data Relies on Measured Activity Instead of Self-Reporting
“We wanted to expand on the current knowledge,” Ekelund says. “If 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?”
To accomplish this, Ekelund and his team understood that self-reporting is not the most ideal way to get an accurate measure of a person’s physical activity in a study setting. After all, people often overestimate how much they really move in a given day.
Instead, they decided to rely on technology. “Participants in the study were asked to wear activity trackers, with follow-ups averaging eight years,” Dutch writes. “The researchers took other variables into account, such as history of diseases, age and body mass.”
The Correlation Between More Exercise and Fewer Deaths
The results concluded that health benefits increased with longer exercise times, Dutch tells us. “For example, being active at moderate intensity for an additional 10 minutes per day was associated with a 15 percent reduction in all deaths among most adults during the follow-up period, the study found.”
In general, reducing sedentary time was shown to be an overall benefit to health. Dutch adds, “Data showed that decreasing inactivity by one hour among the majority of adults was associated with a 13 percent reduction in all deaths, and a 6 percent reduction among the least active adults in the follow-up period.”
Healthy Lifestyle Choices Need Not Feel Overwhelming
Experts like Amy W. Pollak, a general cardiologist at Mayo Clinic Florida (who was not involved in the study), find the results “exciting because it’s very tangible.” Pollak adds that sometimes making better choices for our health can be “overwhelming when we’re trying to balance work and life stressors, health issues, financial concerns and competing interests.
This type of study says there is good data to suggest based on this modeling, 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.
Start Slow, Build Gradually, and Keep At It
Dutch concludes with this encouraging thought from Ekelund: making realistic changes in daily activity—even small ones—can lead to better health. “It’s always difficult to change behaviors, and physical activity behavior is no exception,” Ekelund says.
“It’s 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.”
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