An extra 10 minutes of daily activity could save lives

TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Americans, get up from your chair and go.

If everyone between the ages of 40 and 85 were active for just 10 minutes more a day, it could save more than 110,000 lives in the U.S. annually. great study reports.

“Our projections are based on an additional 10 minutes of moderate to strong physical activity“said lead researcher Pedro Saint-Maurice of the Department of Metabolic Epidemiology at the U.S. National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD.” If walking is brisk, it counts. “

And added benefits of exercise all – whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics, men and women, investigators found.

For the study, the researchers examined data from more than 4,800 middle-aged and older adults who were part of a state health and nutrition study between 2003 and 2006. For seven days, participants wore monitors to record their activity. Researchers then combed death data across the country to see how many died by the end of 2015.

Result: Exercising paid off.

Adding 10 minutes of exercise reduced the risk of participant death during that period by 7%; An additional 20 minutes reduced the risk by 13%; and an additional half hour of moderate to vigorous activity reduced the risk of death by 17%, the findings showed.

In other words, an additional 20 minutes of exercise could prevent nearly 210,000 deaths a year, and an additional 30 minutes could prevent more than 270,000 deaths, the study authors said.

Dr. David Katz – president of the True Health Initiative, a non-profit organization that promotes healthy living as the best way to prevent disease – reviewed the study’s findings.

Katz pointed out that the study does not establish cause-and-effect evidence that additional exercise prevents premature death. But he added, “even part of such a benefit would be of great importance to public health.”

Although the study did not investigate the specific causes of death, Saint-Maurice noted that some of the most common in the United States – heart disease, diabetes and some cancers – “can be prevented in adults who are more active.”