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11 minutes of daily exercise could have a positive impact on your health
When you can’t fit your entire workout into a busy day, do you think there’s no point in doing anything at all? You should rethink that mindset. Just 11 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic activity per day could lower your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease or premature death, a large new study has found.
Aerobic activities include walking, dancing, running, jogging, cycling and swimming. You can gauge the intensity level of an activity by your heart rate and how hard you’re breathing as you move. Generally, being able to talk but not sing during an activity would make it moderate intensity. Vigorous intensity is marked by the inability to carry on a conversation.
Higher levels of physical activity have been associated with lower rates of premature death and chronic disease, according to past research. But how the risk levels for these outcomes are affected by the amount of exercise someone gets has been more difficult to determine. To explore this impact, scientists largely from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom looked at data from 196 studies, amounting to more than 30 million adult participants who were followed for 10 years on average. The results of this latest study were published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The study mainly focused on participants who had done the minimum recommended amount of 150 minutes of exercise per week, or 22 minutes per day. Compared with inactive participants, adults who had done 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic physical activity per week had a 31% lower risk of dying from any cause, a 29% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 15% lower risk of dying from cancer.
The same amount of exercise was linked with a 27% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and 12% lower risk when it came to cancer.
“This is a compelling systematic review of existing research,” said CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, who wasn’t involved in the research. “We already knew that there was a strong correlation between increased physical activity and reduced risk for cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature death. This research confirms it, and furthermore states that a smaller amount than the 150 minutes of recommended exercise a week can help.”
Even people who got just half the minimum recommended amount of physical activity benefited. Accumulating 75 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week — about 11 minutes of activity per day — was associated with a 23% lower risk of early death. Getting active for 75 minutes on a weekly basis was also enough to reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 17% and cancer by 7%.
Beyond 150 minutes per week, any additional benefits were smaller.
“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 study author Dr. Soren Brage, group leader of the Physical Activity Epidemiology group in the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, in a news release. “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.”
The authors’ findings affirm the World Health Organization’s position that doing some physical activity is better than doing none, even if you don’t get the recommended amounts of exercise.
“One in 10 premature deaths could have been prevented if everyone achieved even half the recommended level of physical activity,” the authors wrote in the study. Additionally, “10.9% and 5.2% of all incident cases of CVD (cardiovascular disease) and cancer would have been prevented.”
Important note: If you experience pain while exercising, stop immediately. Check with your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.
A little exercise every day
The authors didn’t have details on the specific types of physical activity the participants did. But some experts do have thoughts on how physical activity could reduce risk for chronic diseases and premature death.
“There are many potential mechanisms including the improvement and maintenance of body composition, insulin resistance and physical function because of a wide variety of favorable influences of aerobic activity,” said Haruki Momma, an associate professor of medicine and science in sports and exercise at Tohoku University in Japan. Momma wasn’t involved in the research.
Benefits could also include improvement to immune function, lung and heart health, inflammation levels, hypertension, cholesterol, and amount of body fat, said Eleanor Watts, a postdoctoral fellow in the division of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute. Watts wasn’t involved in the research.
“These translate into lower risk of getting chronic diseases,” said Peter Katzmarzyk, associate executive director for population and public health sciences at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Katzmarzyk wasn’t involved in the research.
The fact that participants who did only half the minimum recommended amount of exercise still experienced benefits doesn’t mean people shouldn’t aim for more exercise, but rather that “perfect shouldn’t be the enemy of the good,” Wen said. “Some is better than none.”
To get up to 150 minutes of physical activity per week, find activities you enjoy, Wen said. “You are far more likely to engage in something you love doing than something you have to make yourself do.”
And when it comes to how you fit in your exercise, you can think outside the box.
“Moderate activity doesn’t have to involve what we normally think of (as) exercise, such as sports or running,” said study coauthor Leandro Garcia, a lecturer in the school of medicine, dentistry and biomedical sciences at Queen’s University Belfast, in a news release. “Sometimes, replacing some habits is all that is needed.
“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 grand kids. Doing activities that you enjoy and that are easy to include in your weekly routine is an excellent way to become more active.”
注释：
Premature：adj
表示“过早的 ”，means "developing or happening before the natural or proper time “，如：A fire caused the premature closing of the exhibition.火灾迫使展览会提前结束。
vigorous: adj
表示“有力的；”，means " strong “，如：Old as he is, he is none the less vigorous and active. 虽然他年纪很大了，他仍然精力充沛
gauge：v
表示“ 测量; 估计”，means "judge tentatively or form an estimate of (quantities or time); “，如：It was difficult to gauge how people would respond. 大家的反应如何难以估计。
inability: n
表示“无力 ”，means "lack of ability (especially mental ability) to do something “，如：I can't understand his inability in figuring out the math problems. 我无法理解他这种在数学上的无能。
compelling: adj
表示“ 引人注目的;令人信服的 ”，means "tending to persuade by forcefulness of argument “，如：Her latest book makes compelling reading. 她新出的书读起来扣人心弦。
correlation
表示“ 相关”，means "a reciprocal relation between two or more things “，如：Are you familiar with their correlation ?你了解他们的相互关系吗?
epidemiology
表示“ 流行病学”，means "the branch of medical science dealing with the transmission and control of disease “，如：Oral epidemiology can be used to evaluate the efficacy of preventive measures. 口腔流行病学也可用于口腔疾病预防措施和预防方法的研究;并对其效果进行评价.
中文简要说明：
每周无法运动150分钟的人别担心，英国大型研究发现，每天运动11分钟，不论是快走、骑自行车或跳舞，身体也会有很大变化，能降低23%早逝风险。
综合英国广播公司（BBC）、美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）报导，英国国民保健署（NHS）建议每人每周进行150至300分钟能提高心跳的「体能活动」（physical activity），或者75至150分钟会让呼吸急促的剧烈运动。不过实际上很多人都达不到，2／3民众表示每周进行中度运动的时间不到150分钟，每周运动时间超过300分钟的人更不到1／10。
运动量未达标准的人现在别担心了：由英国剑桥大学主导、涵盖新加坡、瑞典、澳洲、爱尔兰、巴西等多国学者组成的团队，28日在《英国运动医学杂志》（British Journal of Sports Medicine）刊登大型研究成果，团队一共分析196篇与运动好处有关的大型研究，研究范围横跨10年，受试者超过3000万人。
这项研究主要想了解每周运动量仅达最低标准150分钟或每日22分钟的受试者健康情形。和不运动的成人相比，每周进行150分钟中度至剧烈有氧运动的成人，因任何因素死亡的风险下降31%，因心血管疾病死亡的风险降29%，癌症死亡风险降15%。这类受试者罹患心血管疾病的风险也下降27%，罹患癌症的风险下降12%。
研究也发现，每周运动时间仅建议量一半的受试者，也就是每周运动仅75分钟或每日运动11分钟，早逝风险下降23%，罹患心脏疾病或中风的风险下降17%，癌症风险下降7%。研究人员甚至指出，就算每周运动量只有75分钟，也能减少1／10早逝案例，以及避免10.9%、5.2%心血管疾病及癌症案例.这份研究没有提到进行哪些特定运动，不过走路、快走、跑步、骑脚踏车、健行、跳舞都属于有氧运动。
带领这项研究的英国剑桥大学（Cambridge University）体能活动流行病学专家布拉吉（Soren Brage）表示，民众应该感觉自己在动、心跳加速，但不需要到气喘吁吁。他补充说，如果民众一周能运动75分钟，那可以试着敦促自己尽量达到建议的150分钟运动量。
要怎么样达到建议的运动量呢？
研究共同作者、贝尔法斯特女王大学（Queen's University Belfast）教授贾西亚（Leandro Garcia）表示，民众不需要将运动局限在打球或跑步，也可以用走路或骑脚踏车代替坐车上班，或者是和孩子们一起玩。他建议民众做一些自己喜欢的活动，会让自己更有活力。
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