Health and Medicine
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While there may be no magic number for minutes of exercise a day to keep us all healthy, new research has found that people who report doing over 150 minutes of vigorous exercise a week do appear to have a significantly reduced risk of developing 19 chronic diseases. Amounting to just under 22 minutes a day, it seems getting your sweat on for the length of a Simpsons episode could make a big difference when it comes to everything from heart health to cancer and diabetes.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The study surveyed patients at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center about their levels of physical activity. Their final dataset amounted to over 7,000 respondents and showed a statistically significant result for physical activity and risk of developing certain diseases.
It found that the people who reported doing 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a week were statistically less likely to develop 19 chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease, and diabetes. Meanwhile, those reporting the least amount of exercise were found to be associated with a higher risk of developing chronic disease.
While the news that exercise can be beneficial in lowering disease risk isn't new, the researchers behind the research believe it underpins the importance of asking patients about their levels of physical activity, and that finding a quick and easy way to do so can make it easier for doctors to help those who could benefit from being more active. Their methodology took less than 30 seconds as patients were asked just two questions on a tablet:
Question one: “On average, how many days per week do you engage in moderate to vigorous exercise (like a brisk walk)?” (zero-seven days)
Question two: “On average, how many minutes do you engage in exercise at this level?”
By opening up a dialogue in this way, it could make it easier to connect patients with supportive services like exercise prescriptions and community health specialists. According to the researchers, there are no hospitals in the Midwest that ask patients about their exercise levels, and the practice is rare across most of the United States. As such, they’d like to make the survey available to all patients.
“This two-question survey typically takes fewer than 30 seconds for a patient to complete,” said study lead and associate professor in the University of Iowa's Department of Health and Human Physiology, Lucas Carr, in a statement. “It doesn’t interfere with their visit, but it can tell us a whole lot about that patient’s overall health.”
The study is published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.
