Just 15 minutes of daily exercise ups life span

Most
people struggle to stick to the standard guideline of 30 minutes a day of
exercise, five days a week, and experts hope that by identifying a lower dose,
more people will be motivated to get off the couch.

Lead
researcher Chi Pang Wen of Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes said
dedicating 15 minutes a day to a moderate form of exercise, like brisk walking,
would benefit anyone.

“It’s
for men, women, the young and old, smokers, healthy and unhealthy people.
Doctors, when they see any type of patient, this is a one-size-fits-all type of
advice,” Wen said in a telephone interview.

Wen
and colleagues, who published their findings in medical journal The Lancet on
Tuesday, tracked over 416,000 participants for 13 years, analysing their health
records and reported levels of physical activity each year.

After
taking into account differences in age, weight, sex and a range of
health-related indicators, they found that just 15 minutes of moderate exercise
a day increased life expectancy by three years compared to those who remained
inactive.

“The
first 15 minutes … the benefits are enormous,” Wen said.

Daily
exercise was also linked to a lower incidence of cancer, and appeared to reduce
cancer-related deaths in one person in ten.

“Sooner
or later, you are going to die. But compared to the inactive group, the low
exercise group has a reduction of 10 percent in cancer mortality,” Wen
said.

Wen
said the Taiwan findings were consistent with similar studies in the past using
Caucasian participants, but his team was the first to come up with the minimum
level of exercise necessary.

“None
of the other papers were able to conclude… what specific amount of exercise
would be enough. Ours is the first one to say that 15 minutes would be
enough,” he said.

“We
hope this will make it more attractive for inactive people, that they can
allocate 15 minutes a day, rather than 30, which is more difficult.”