Regular exercise plays an important role in maintaining one’s health. A new research has revealed that just 10 minutes of physical activity can help increase the longevity of those over 40 years of age.
The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine journal, said that adding 20 or 30 minutes of physical activity daily will lead to more benefits.
For the analysis, researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, where participants in the age group of six and older were asked to wear an accelerometer (an instrument that measures vibration and acceleration) for seven days from 2003 to 2006.
Researchers then used data from 4,850 participants that were 40 to 85 years old and followed up in 2015 to determine their self-reported health status, as per the reports.
The study reported that approximately 1,10,000 deaths per year can be prevented if US adults aged 40 to 85 increase their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity intensity (MVPA) by just 10 minutes per day.
“In fact, increasing MVPA by 10, 20, or 30 minutes per day was associated with a 6.9 percent, 13 percent, and 16.9 percent decrease in deaths per year, respectively,” As per the study.
“We know exercise is good for us. This study provides additional evidence of the benefits at the population level: if all adults in the United States (over age 40) were to exercise just a bit more each day, a large number of deaths could be prevented each year,” said Dr. Pedro Saint-Maurice, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute and first author of the study.
