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Add 5 Minutes Exercise: Live Longer!
15 Jan
Summary
- Five extra minutes of daily exercise may cut deaths by 10 percent.
- Reducing sitting time by one hour may prevent over seven percent of deaths.
- A combined healthy lifestyle adds over nine years of good health.
Increasing daily physical activity by just five minutes, or reducing sedentary time by half an hour, may prevent a substantial portion of deaths, according to new research. Findings published in The Lancet suggest these small, achievable changes can significantly improve lifespan. For instance, an extra five minutes of moderate-intensity activity is linked to a 10 percent reduction in mortality for many adults.
Further analysis indicates that cutting sedentary time by a full hour daily could be associated with a 13 percent decrease in all deaths. These insights emerged from a study involving over 135,000 adults followed for eight years across Norway, Sweden, the United States, and the UK Biobank, using device-measured activity data.
A separate study in eClinicalMedicine highlights that integrating healthier sleep habits, physical activity, and diet can also extend life expectancy. The combination of an additional five minutes of sleep and half a serving of vegetables daily could add a year to life for individuals with the poorest habits. Achieving seven to eight hours of sleep, over 40 minutes of daily activity, and a healthy diet may contribute to over nine extra years of life.
