Short bursts of physical activity lowers risk of early death: Study

New research has revealed that even three to four one-minute bursts of vigorous activity during daily work is connected with significant decreases in the risk of early death, particularly from cardiovascular disease.

The research revealed that as little as 3 or 4 minutes of short, vigorous activity bursts throughout the day were associated with a substantially lower risk of premature death from all causes compared with people who did none.

The health advantages of what experts refer to as “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity,” or VILPA, are being measured for the first time with accuracy.

VILPA stands for very brief bursts of intense physical activity, which can last up to one to two minutes.

Similar to exercise snacks, examples of VILPA include sprinting to catch the bus, sprinting while running errands, bursts of activity while doing the housework, and playing high-intensity games with the kids.

Researchers from the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney in Australia measured the activity of over 25,000 “non-exercisers,” or people who self-reported that they undertake no sports or exercise during their free time, using wrist-worn tracker data from the UK Biobank.

The researchers came to the conclusion that any activity that was noted by this group was simply everyday, incidental physical activity.

Researchers then used health information to follow the subjects over a seven-year period.

Larger benefits were seen with participants performing larger VILPA amounts, suggesting the more the better.

However, the studies are observational, and hence they cannot conclusively prove cause and effect.

The study was published in Nature Medicine.

002