· Scientists find that vigorous exercise may lower the risk of eight chronic diseases.
· Even a few minutes of vigorous exercise a day can make a difference, research finds.
· Experts explain the latest study.
There’s been a big push in the health community to count all forms of activity as some form of exercise. And while any movement is better than none, scientists found that performing a specific type of exercise lowers your risk of developing eight chronic diseases over the next seven years.
The study, which was published in the European Heart Journal, analyzed data from more than 96,000 people who wore activity trackers for a week and nearly 376,000 people who self-reported their activity levels as part of the UK Biobank, a long-running health study. The researchers also looked at the likelihood that the participants would develop eight chronic diseases over the next seven years.
Meet the experts: Cheng-Han Chen, M.D., interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA; Albert Matheny, R.D., C.S.C.S., co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab
After crunching the data, the researchers discovered that people who had a lot of vigorous movements as part of their activity had much lower risks of developing the chronic diseases studied. In fact, compared to people who didn’t do any vigorous activity, those with the highest levels saw a 63% lower risk of developing dementia, 60% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, and a 46% lower risk of dying in the seven-year study period.
However, the researchers also found that disease-reducing benefits were evident even when people spent only a small amount of time—just a few minutes a day—on vigorous activity.
“These findings support, whenever possible, prioritizing higher-intensity activities in clinical and public health interventions aimed at preventing non-communicable diseases,” the researchers wrote in the conclusion.
Why might this be the case? Experts explain.
Which diseases might vigorous exercise protect against?
This study found that bursts of vigorous exercise can protect against eight major chronic diseases:
- Major cardiovascular disease
- Irregular heartbeat
- Type 2 diabetes
- Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases
- Liver disease
- Chronic respiratory diseases
- Chronic kidney disease
- Dementia
The researchers discovered that vigorous intensity activity mattered more for some diseases. With inflammatory conditions like arthritis and psoriasis, intensity seemed to play a big role in lowering risk. But the length of time people were active and how hard they worked out played a role in risk reduction for conditions like type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
Why might vigorous exercise be protective against chronic disease?
There are likely a few things going on here, according to Cheng-Han Chen, M.D., interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA. “Vigorous exercise raises the heart rate, which will help the heart pump more efficiently,” he says. That can have downstream effects on everything from heart disease risk to more efficiently shuttling nutrients around your body, he points out.
Vigorous exercise also helps relax blood vessels, lowering the risk of high blood pressure, Dr. Chen says. And vigorous exercise also helps to improve your overall health, Dr. Chen says. “That would help the body systems in general be more efficient, which would improve other markers of disease risk,” he says, listing off obesity and stress as a few.
What does this look like in real life?
Vigorous-intensity exercise is a high-intensity activity that significantly increases your heart rate and breathing. When you’re doing vigorous exercise, you should be breathing hard and fast, according to Albert Matheny, R.D., C.S.C.S., co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab.
You can blend vigorous exercise into your existing workouts or do workouts that fall into this category. These activities require a “vigorous” effort, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
- Jogging or running
- Swimming laps
- Riding a bike fast or up hills
- Playing singles tennis
- Playing basketball
In fact, the CDC notes that one minute of vigorous-intensity activity is about the same as two minutes of moderate-intensity activity.
“If you are already doing an activity, just get a little sprint in,” says Albert Matheny, R.D., C.S.C.S., co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab. “If you’re cycling, you can do intervals or just bike strong and then cool down after that.”
But this can apply to a lot of forms of exercise, he says. “If you’re on a walk, find a hill and go up it hard,” Matheny says. You can also walk up steps at a fast pace during your day or pump up the incline on your treadmill to get that breathing and heart rate up, he says.
Ultimately, Matheny recommends looking at vigorous exercise this way: “Just take what you’re doing and pick up the pace.”
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