11 minutes of brisk walking a day may prevent premature death: study

LONDON – Regular small amounts of exercise, such as an 11-minute brisk walk, can prevent one in 10 premature deaths, a large study said Wednesday.

Physical activity is known to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and other major causes of death, but the exact amount needed to have the effect is unknown.

Therefore, an international team of researchers has compiled the results of 196 previous studies involving more than 30 million people to create one of the largest reviews ever conducted on the subject.

They found that if everyone in the study did at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, the level recommended by the UK’s National Health Service, about 1 in 6 premature deaths could be prevented. I calculated.

But half that amount (less than 75 minutes a week, or 11 minutes a day) could prevent a tenth of these deaths, according to a meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

This included a 17% reduction in heart disease and a 7% reduction in cancer.

For people with little or no physical activity, 11 minutes a day reduced the risk of premature death by 23%.

“It’s very good news,” Dr Soren Brage, an expert in physical activity epidemiology at the University of Cambridge in the UK and co-author of the study, told AFP.

“All you need to do is find just over 10 minutes each day,” he said.

“And you don’t have to go to the gym to do these types of activities. It’s part of your daily routine.”

He suggested that people get off at an early bus stop on their way to work or try to cycle home.

“Very flexible,” he said.

Many of the studies were conducted more than a decade ago, Dr. Brage said, because it would take years to assess how exercise affects the risk of such diseases.