Just 10 Minutes of Exercise a Week May Be Enough to Extend Your Life, Study Says

Exercising for just 10 minutes a week is linked to a longer life, according to a new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Several recent studies have found that even low-intensity exercise, done for a short amount of time, can have a meaningful impact on health. Still, the idea that exercising for 10 minutes a week — less time than it takes to watch a TV show, do a load of laundry or make a pot of pasta — may be enough to increase your lifespan is novel. It’s also somewhat controversial, since the federal physical activity guidelines recommend getting at least 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise or 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise each week. “Any dose of physical activity will be beneficial to human health,” study co-author Bo Xi, a professor and epidemiologist at the Shandong University School of Public Health in China, wrote in an email to TIME. The study was based on data from more than 88,000 U.S. adults who participated in the National Health Interview Survey between 1997 and 2008. All of the participants were ages 40 to 85 and did not have any chronic diseases when they took the survey. They also provided demographic and health information, and were tracked by researchers for about nine years. About 8,000 people died during the follow-up period, and the researchers found that virtually any amount of exercise reduced the risks of dying of cardiovascular disease, cancer or any other cause. These reductions i...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Exercise/Fitness Source Type: news