Walking for at least 11 minutes a day lowers risk of premature death: Study

Walking for at least 11 minutes every day could lower your risk of premature death by almost 25 percent, according to the largest study to date of physical activity, disease risk and mortality.

Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the ambitious study analyzed health data for more than 30 million people, looking for correlations between how much people move and how long and well they live.

Its findings show that even small amounts of exercise contribute to substantial improvements in longevity and can lower risks of developing or dying of heart disease and many types of cancer.

For the new study, researchers at the University of Cambridge, Queen’s University Belfast, and other institutions decided to aggregate data from as many relevant past studies as possible, creating a far larger pool of participants and potentially more-convincing results.

They wound up with 196 studies, covering more than 30 million people, making this by many measures and a hefty margin, “the largest” study of how exercise contributes to longevity, said Leandro Garcia. Garcia is a public health and complexity researcher at Queen’s University Belfast who led the new study.

Perhaps most inspiring, the study’s statistical analysis suggests that 1 in 10 of all early deaths might be averted if each of us got up and moved even a little more than many of us currently do.

150 minutes vs. 75 minutes a week

For years, governmental health agencies in the United States, Canada, Europe and other nations have recommended that anyone capable of exercising should exercise moderately for at least 150 minutes a week for optimal health. (Moderate exercise means a brisk walk or similar exertions that raise your heart rate and breathing enough that conversation becomes difficult.)

In practical terms, these guidelines promote walking briskly for half-an-hour five times a week.

But most of us don’t, according to the latest federal statistics, which show only about 47 percent of American adults exercise enough.

Source: The Washington Post

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