Similarly, accelerometer-assessed measures of physical activity in UK Biobank suggest that as little as 10 minutes of brisk walking a day is associated with longer life expectancy 14. Indeed, walking pace has been shown to have a stronger association with survival and be a substantially better prognostic marker for all-cause or cardiovascular mortality than other measures of physical activity volume, diet, or physical function 12, 13. Strong associations with health status have been seen for habitual or self-rated walking pace, which has been associated with better physical fitness and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, with brisk walkers having up to 20 years greater life expectancy compared to slow walkers 11. It therefore holds potential as a pragmatic target for intervention 5. Walking is a simple and largely accessible form of physical activity for all ages, conferring many physical, mental, and social health benefits with minimal adverse effects 1, 2, 3, 4. Given its simple measurement and low heritability, self-reported walking pace may be a pragmatic target for interventions. A faster walking pace may be causally associated with longer LTL, which could help explain some of the beneficial effects of brisk walking on health status. Bi-directional mendelian randomisation analyses suggest a causal link between walking pace and LTL, but not the other way around. We show that steady/average and brisk walkers had significantly longer LTL compared with slow walkers, with accelerometer-assessed measures of physical activity further supporting this through an association between LTL and habitual activity intensity, but not with total amount of activity. Analyses were conducted in 405,981 UK Biobank participants. Here we investigate whether walking pace is associated with LTL, which is causally associated with several chronic diseases and has been proposed as a marker of biological age. “Doing activities that you enjoy and that are easy to include in your weekly routine is an excellent way to become more active.Walking pace is a simple and functional form of movement and a strong predictor of health status, but the nature of its association with leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is unclear. “For example, try to walk or cycle to your work or study place instead of using a car, or engage in active play with your kids or grandkids,” he said. The researchers calculated that if everyone in the studies had done the equivalent of at least 150 minutes a week of moderate activity, about one in six (16%) early deaths would have been prevented.īut even if everyone had managed at least 75 minutes a week, about one in 10 (10%) early deaths would have been prevented, the research found.ĭr Leandro Garcia, of Queen’s University Belfast, emphasised that moderate activity did not have to involve what people normally thought of as exercise, such as sports or running. “But what we’ve found is there are substantial benefits to heart health and reducing your risk of cancer even if you can only manage 10 minutes every day.” “We know that physical activity, such as walking or cycling, is good for you, especially if you feel it raises your heart rate,” said Prof James Woodcock, also of Cambridge University. It was also enough to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by 17% and cancer by 7%. They then examined the association between levels of physical activity and the risk of heart disease, cancer and early death.Īccumulating 75 minutes a week of moderate intensity activity lowed the risk of early death by 23%, they found. Researchers looked at 196 peer-reviewed articles, covering more than 30 million participants from 94 large study cohorts. This is also a good starting position – if you find that 75 minutes a week is manageable, then you could try stepping it up gradually to the full recommended amount.” “Doing some physical activity is better than doing none. “If you are someone who finds the idea of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week a bit daunting, then our findings should be good news,” said Dr Søren Brage, of Cambridge’s Medical Research Council (MRC) epidemiology unit. Moderate-intensity physical activity is defined as activity that raises the heart rate and makes people breathe faster, but not so fast they cannot speak. The results were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Globally, one in 10 early deaths could be avoided if everyone met just half the recommended weekly target of 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity, the largest ever pooled data analysis suggests. Brisk walking, dancing, riding a bike, playing tennis or hiking can all substantially cut the risks of early death, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers, including those of the head and neck and myeloid leukaemia, Cambridge University experts have found.
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