Take an average of four minutes of casual vigorous physical activity a day, such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries, walking uphill, playing tag with a child or pet, or walking uphill or briskly, could reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by almost half such as heart attacks, in middle-aged women who do not do any scheduled exercise, according to new research from the University of Sydney, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
“We found that a minimum of 1.5 minutes to an average of 4 minutes of daily vigorous physical activity, completed in short bursts of up to 1 minute in duration, was associated with better cardiovascular health outcomes in middle-aged women who did not exercise.” structured exercise,” says lead author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, director of the Mackenzie Wearable Hub at the Charles Perkins Center and the Faculty of Medicine and Health.
High-intensity physical exercise that is part of the daily routine is known as ‘vigorous intermittent physical activity’ (VILPA, for its acronym in English). Longer sessions of VILPA are associated with a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Researchers say that since fewer than 20 percent of middle-aged and older adults engage in regular structured exercise, performing VILPA could be a good alternative.
“Making short periods of intense physical activity a lifestyle habit could be a promising option for women who are not interested in structured exercise or who cannot do it for some reason. As a starting point, it could be as simple as incorporating a few minutes of activities throughout the day such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries, walking uphill, playing tag with a child or pet, or walking uphill or at a pace. light,” says Professor Stamatakis.
The study was based on data from 22,368 participants (13,018 women and 9,350 men) between 40 and 79 years old who declared that they did not perform regularly scheduled exercise. The data was collected from the UK Biobank, whose participants wore fitness trackers for almost 24 hours a day for 7 days between 2013 and 2015.
Cardiovascular health was monitored through hospital and mortality records, tracking major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), such as heart attack, stroke and heart failure, until November 2022.
After adjusting for factors such as lifestyle, socioeconomic position, cardiovascular health, comorbidities, and ethnicity, the researchers found that the more VILPA women performed, the lower their risk of a major cardiovascular event. Those who practiced an average of 3.4 minutes of VILPA per day they were 45 percent less likely to suffer a major cardiovascular event. They were also 51 percent less likely to have a heart attack and 67 percent less likely to develop heart failure than women who did not perform these casual exercises.
Even when daily amounts of VILPA were less than 3.4 minutes, they were still associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular problems. A minimum of 1.2 to 1.6 minutes of these unscheduled activities per day was associated with a 30 percent lower risk of major cardiovascular events overall, a 33 percent lower risk of heart attack, and a 40 percent lower risk of heart failure.
However, men obtained less benefit from small doses of VILPA. Those who exercised an average of 5.6 minutes daily were only 16 percent less likely to suffer a major cardiovascular event compared to those who exercised nothing. A minimum of 2.3 minutes per day was associated with a risk reduction of only 11 percent.
‘To date, it has not been clear whether short doses of VILPA reduce the risk of specific types of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or strokes. Our goal was to identify minimum daily thresholds and feasible quantities to test in community programs and future trials,” says Professor Stamatakis.
‘Importantly, the beneficial associations we observed occurred in women who committed to short VILPA sessions almost daily. This highlights the importance of habit formation, which is not always easy. VILPA should not be seen as a quick fix – there are no magic health solutions. But our results show that even slightly higher intensity activity can help and could be just what people need to develop a habit of regular physical activity, or even exercise,” concludes the author.
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