Researchers suggest exercising on a weekly basis, even though for brief periods of time could significantly lower the risk of death.
A team of researchers from Loughborough University in England has concluded that performing regular physical demanding activities substantially lowers the risk of one dying sometime during the next decade. Global and U.S. guidelines generally call for either 75 minutes of vigorous exercise or 150 minutes of moderate physical activity every week in order for health benefits to come into effect.
Ideally, physicians recommend spreading out the workouts over the course of the week. Nevertheless, those who claim to have limited time for exercise can simply get out for a walk or run in the park during the weekend. Researchers refer to these people as weekend warriors. Even if one fails to meet the global guidelines’ standards, the scientists say any amount of exercise plays an important role in keeping deaths associated with heart conditions, mental health issues, unhealthy sleep patterns, and high blood pressure at bay.
Over the course of 14 years, from 1994 to 2008, Loughborough University’s researchers pulled information on approximately 64,000 adults in Scotland and England. By 2016, roughly 8,800 died. According to how much physical activity they performed during the study, the results which came in only last month showed that approximately 63 percent of the deaths were linked to individuals who did not perform regular physical exercises.
Furthermore, only 11 percent of the individuals who met the global guidelines died, while 4 percent of weekend warriors and 22 percent of individuals who engaged in demanding physical activities less than the recommended weekly amount succumbed to different diseases or died of natural causes.
“If someone is completely inactive, the best thing they can do is even getting out and taking a walk”, says Hannah Arem.
Even though the health researcher at George Washington University had no role in the survey, she published a commentary that appeared together with the study’s results in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday, January 9th.
However, because of the observational nature of the study, researchers can only suggest health risks and exercise are related since they cannot prove the point. Furthermore, over 90 percent of the subjects were Caucasian. Hence, whether regularly or not, exercising may yield different results in African Americans or other racial groups, noted the researchers.
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