Want to slash your risk of death!?
Exercise more!
The 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Healthy Americans recommend that adults engage in at least 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate exercise, or 75 to 150 minutes each week of vigorous movement. Or the equivalent combination of both. It turns out that the more you do, the lower your risk of death.
Moderate exercise is defined as walking, weightlifting, and lower-intensity exercise. Vigorous exercise is running, bicycling, and swimming.
300 minutes of moderate exercise, where you can talk, but not sing, can add YEARS to your life. Yes, 300 is optimal. We previously thought 150 minutes.
From two large Prospective, U.S. cohort studies of over 110 thousand Americans who reported leisure time physical activity, this questionnaire was repeated up to 15 times over the course of 30 years. It was found that working out two to four times beyond the minimum vigorous physical activity recommendations led to a lower risk of deaths from cardiovascular disease. And those who did at least 300 to 599 minutes per week saw the most benefit.
The people in this group slashed their risk by 26% to 31% lower all cause risk of death and a 28% to 38% lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality. In addition, the benefit wasn’t just a heart disease or vascular disease. It included a 25% to 27% lower risk of non cardiovascular disease death.
In the group of adults who worked out 150 to 299 minutes per week, they also saw benefit. They had a 21% to 23% lower risk of all cause mortality, as well as a 27% to 33% lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality and 19% lower risk of non cardiovascular disease mortality.
And the cost of exercise? Free! My favorite price.
There was no risk of harm for long term in this study, highly vigorous physical activity on cardiovascular health.
