Moderate exercise for just 75 minutes a week could avert 10 per cent of early deaths, according to a new study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
By exercising for half of the weekly recommended amount of time – 150 minutes of moderate physical activity – the risks of early death, cardiovascular disease and particular cancers are significantly reduced, according to the report.
Some 16 per cent of all recorded premature deaths would have been avoided if all insufficiently active people had exercised for 150 minutes per week.
It is widely accepted that higher levels of exercise reduces risk of death from all causes, but methods employed in previous studies have encountered difficulties in pinpointing risks for specific outcomes. This new analysis has also attempted to overcome the issue of workplace physical activity being included in previous studies.
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In this most recent study researchers employed new methods that allowed them to exclude resting energy expenditure and to explore the dose-response links between leisure time physical activity and specific types of cancer for the first time.
Researchers measured the exercise by metabolic equivalent of task (MET) hours per week. METs record the number of calories expended per minute of physical activity, relative to energy expended while resting.
In a study of 10,000 adults those clocking 8.75 MET hours per week, the equivalent of 150 minutes of moderate physical activity, were 31 per cent less likely to die of all causes compared to inactive adults.
While the risk of cardiovascular disease was 27 per cent lower, the associations were weaker for different types, with coronary heart disease observing the most significant reduction of risk at 21 per cent.
For cancer the reduction in risk was lower at 12 per cent, but head and neck cancers, myeloid leukaemia, myeloma, and stomach cancer saw a greater reduction in risk ranging from 35 to 22 per cent compared to insufficiently active people. Lung, liver, womb, bowel and breast cancers had reductions of 5 to 16 per cent.
The above numbers came from those exercising for 150 minutes per week, with researchers noticing still significant reductions in risk for those who recorded half of that output.
When compared to inactive people, the differences in risk were greater between 0 and 8.75 MET hours per week. Among those who recorded 17.5 MET hours per week, the equivalent of 300 minutes of moderate exercise, the variance in risk reduced.
Researchers said: “Appreciable population health benefits might be gained from increasing [physical activity] levels of people who are inactive to just half the current health recommendations, with further benefits for all reaching at least the recommended level, and smaller additional benefits beyond that.”
The studies relied on self-reported activity levels. Due to a lack of reporting, researchers at times were forced to make assumptions about the length and intensity of recorded exercise.
