Two minutes of active physical activity a day or 15 minutes a week is enough to reduce the risk of premature death, a new Australian study shows.

The researchers, led by Dr Matthew Ahmadi of the University of Sydney, who published a related publication in the European Heart Journal of the European Society of Cardiology, studied almost 72,000 adults without cardiovascular disease or cancer, with an average age of 62.5 years. were followed up for seven years.

It found that the risk of death over the next five years was 4% for those who did no active physical activity/activities at all, 2% for those who did less than 10 minutes of such exercise in a week, and only 1% for those who performed more than 60 minutes of intense exercise.

Compared with two minutes of vigorous exercise per week, 15 minutes was associated with an 18% reduction in the risk of premature death and a 15% reduction in cardiovascular disease, and 12 minutes was associated with a 17% reduction in cancer risk. 53 minutes per week was associated with a 36% lower risk of dying from any cause.

A higher frequency of short but intense exercise (an average of two minutes four times a day) was associated with a 27% reduction in the likelihood of death. Ten such two minutes per week was associated with a 16% reduction in the likelihood of cardiovascular disease and a 17% reduction in cancer risk.

“The results show that the more often a person engages in short bursts of vigorous activity during the week, the longer they can live. “Given that lack of time is the most commonly cited barrier to regular physical activity, creating shorter sporadic but vigorous exercise throughout the day may be an attractive alternative for busy people,” Dr. Ahmadi said.

A second study published in the same medical journal confirmed that for a given exercise duration, the higher the intensity, the lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. The study included 88,412 adults without cardiovascular disease, with a mean age of 62 years, who were followed up for seven years. It was found that the likelihood of being diagnosed with cardiovascular disease was 14% lower when moderate or vigorous exercise accounted for 20% of total exercise time, compared to 10%.

“Our study shows that not only the amount of exercise, but also the intensity of exercise is important for cardiovascular health,” said lead researcher Dr Paddy Dempsey from the UK universities of Cambridge and Leicester. “Increasing overall physical activity is not the only way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Increasing its intensity is also particularly important, with an increase in both quantity and intensity being ideal. In any case, it is good for heart health to increase the intensity of various activities, such as, for example, playing sports. speeding up the daily commute to the bus stop or doing household chores,” he added.

^{Source: RES-IPE}