Reduce Risk of Chronic Disease

Short bursts of vigorous activity that leave you a little breathless are linked to ‘striking’ reductions in many diseases.

Researchers at Xiangya School of Public Health at Central South University in Hunan, China say it’s not just about being active but the intensity of the activity that matters. They assessed the activity levels of around 96,000 people and discovered that those who did more intense exercise were the least likely to develop a chronic health problem over the seven years of follow up.

The good news was that it doesn’t take much: people who just run for a bus or walk quickly up the stairs were the least likely to develop one of the eight chronic diseases the researchers monitored, which included major cardiovascular disease, irregular heartbeat, type 2 diabetes, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, liver disease, chronic respiratory diseases, chronic kidney disease and dementia.

Compared with those who did no vigorous activity, individuals with the highest levels saw a 63 percent lower risk of dementia, a 60 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes, and a 46 percent lower risk of death. These benefits were observed even when the total time spent on vigorous activity was relatively small—even just a few minutes a day, in fact.

Vigorous activity was especially beneficial for inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and psoriasis, while the time that people were active was just as important in warding off diseases like diabetes and chronic liver disease.

“Vigorous physical activity appears to trigger specific responses in the body that lower-intensity activity cannot fully replicate. During vigorous physical activity—the kind that makes you feel out of breath—your body responds in powerful ways. Your heart pumps more efficiently, your blood vessels become more flexible, and your body improves its ability to use oxygen,” said Minxue Shen, one of the researchers.

The good news is that all these health-giving benefits can be achieved without going to the gym. As Prof Shen said, short bursts of activity that make you slightly breathless are enough, and these can include taking the stairs quickly, walking fast between errands or playing actively with children. “Even 15 to 20 minutes per week of this kind of effort–just a few minutes a day—is enough,” he said.