Research links increased intensity of habits like walking to the bus stop and running after children to lower risk of premature death
THE WASHINGTON POST – Hurry up to the bus stop. Hurry up the stairs. Play tag with your kids. Play with the dog. Vacuum the living room with a twist. Increasing the vigor and enthusiasm of our daily activities can have a substantial impact on ours longevityaccording to a new study on movement intensity and mortality.
The study concluded that just three minutes a day of vigorous daily activity is associated with a 40% lower risk of premature death in adults, even when they don’t exercise regularly. “It’s fantastic research,” said Ulrik Wisloff, director of the KG Jebsen Center for Exercise in Medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. He studies activity and longevity extensively, but was not involved in the new study.
The research findings add to growing scientific evidence that adding a little intensity to our lives has major health benefits, without the need for extra equipment, education, gym membership, or time.
The idea that the way we move affects how long we live is not new. Much research links regular exercise to increased life expectancy, including formal public health guidelines, which recommend at least 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise for health and longevity.
More focused research, however, suggests that intensifying some of our exercises – making sure your heart rate and breathing increase – amplifies the health benefits.
In a large-scale 2006 study from Wisloff’s lab, for example, it found that just 30 minutes a week of vigorous exercise reduced the risk of death from heart disease in about half of the men and women who participated, compared to sedentary people.
Similarly, a study published last year in JAMA Internal Medicine concluded that people who exert more effort during exercise are about 17 percent less likely to die prematurely than other people who exercise the same amount but at a gentler, more moderate pace.
Both studies, however, and similar previous research, were based on people’s subjective recollection of how much and how hard they exercised. “If we’re being honest, most people are allergic to the word ‘exercise,'” said Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor of physical activity and health studies at the University of Sydney in Australia who led the new study.
Recognizing this behavior, he and his colleagues began to question the effects of non-physical activities, those frequent tasks and movements that take up most of our days. Would it matter to people’s health if these activities were completed faster, harder, with a little more enthusiasm?
To find out, the researchers turned to the extensive data stored in the file UK Biobank, which includes the medical records of hundreds of thousands of British men and women. Most of them used an accelerometer for a week after joining the Biobank to track their daily movements. The scientists obtained records from 25,241 of these adults, aged 40 to 69, who told the researchers they had never exercised.
physical outbreaks
Scientists then began to analyze their daily activities in minute detail, determining the intensity of their movements almost second by second, based on the speed of their steps and other data. The analysis required three months of constant computer time, Stamatakis said. But eventually, the researchers were able to map the participants’ brief movements, such as when someone ran to catch a train or chased a child. These “physical jolts” can last as little as a minute. But they do have an impact on mortality risk.
By comparing activity patterns with death records over a period of about seven years after people joined the Biobank, the scientists found that men and women who spent an average of 4.4 minutes a day what scientists call vigorous, intermittent lifestyles were about 30 percent less likely to have died in those seven years than those who rarely moved fast.
Diffusing these short bursts of activity increases the longevity benefits. When people achieved at least three separate bursts of movement during a day, each lasting just a minute, their risk of death decreased by 40%, compared to people who never hurried. They didn’t exercise, they just increased the pace of something they were doing, at least three times a day.
Finally, the researchers performed a similar analysis of data on 62,344 men and women from the Biobank who exercised, albeit mostly at a moderate pace. When these people managed a few minutes of more vigorous activity most days, both during workouts and during daily activities, their mortality risks were lower than when they exercised regularly in a moderate fashion. “There’s something about intensity,” Stamatakis said.
To bolster your activities, Stamatakis continued, move fast and hard enough that conversation is impossible. Aim for this level of shortness of breath three to four times a day, for a minute or two, preferably while you’re doing something you have to do anyway.
This study is limited, however. It’s associative, showing only a relationship between rapid bursts of effort and how long you live, and it doesn’t tell us why intensity matters, although other research indicates that vigorous exercise improves endurance and cardiovascular health more than regular exercise. lighter, Stamatakis said.
The result of the study, he concluded, is that the rush to perform daily tasks can add years to our lives in the future.
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Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
