New research shows stunningly small amount of daily activity can halve heart attack risk: 'Promising'
If you're a woman who's not quite down with working out, there's good news — just a few minutes of physical activity accrued throughout the day could halve your heart attack risk.
That's according to new research coming out of the UK, which tracked vital signs and exercise levels of middle-aged people for seven days between 2013 and 2015 and then followed up on their heart health for eight years.
Women's Health summarized the findings, revealing that the research team found a 51% reduction in heart attacks for women who recorded a total of 3.4 minutes of "vigorous intermittent" exercise like brisk walking or climbing the stairs sprinkled throughout their daily routine. They also suffered 67% fewer cases of heart failure and experienced a 45% overall reduction in heart disease compared to their sedentary counterparts.
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Plus, the researchers found that just 90 seconds of such activity could make a difference, slashing the risk of heart problems by a third.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women in the United States and the UK, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the British Heart Foundation. The study's authors add that women, in general, tend to have lower cardiovascular fitness throughout life.
While adding just a few minutes of heart-pumping activity to your daily activity can fight against this problem, you can compound the positive effects by taking it outside, as a number of studies have linked time spent in nature to health benefits. For instance, one study found that spending just 10 minutes outdoors can help adults who deal with mental illness.
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As for the new study, "vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity may be a promising physical activity target for cardiovascular disease prevention, particularly in women unable or not willing to engage in formal exercise," the authors concluded.
"The most important piece of information is that these 3.4 minutes were accrued through nine bouts, lasting on average 20 to 30 seconds, up to one minute, which were consistently done on a daily basis," one of the study's authors, Emmanuel Stamatakis, clarified to the Financial Review. "So it's intermittent, it's consistent, it's a habit."
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New research shows stunningly small amount of daily activity can halve heart attack risk: 'Promising' first appeared on The Cool Down.
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