Sydney: A study has shown that taking the stairs and cleaning the floor is enough to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
A study conducted at the University of Sydney examined 25,000 British citizens who did not participate in any sport or exercise. In the study, participants wore devices on their wrists that measured their physical activity.
The researchers found that most of the physical activity the participants engaged in was incidental to varying durations of less than 10 minutes.
In the eight-year study, these short-term periods (moderate to severe) were associated with fewer heart attacks and strokes and fewer deaths from any cause.
Studies have found continuous walking for at least one to three minutes is more beneficial than activities lasting less than one minute. Doing so reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by 29 percent and the risk of death by 44 percent.
According to the team, the more intense the activity during each period, the more improvement was seen. People who did at least 10 seconds of vigorous activity every minute saw the greatest benefit.
From climbing stairs to mopping the floor, researchers have realized over the years that it’s not just exercise that’s good for health, researchers have learned how these small, incidental activities can improve health, according to the study’s senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatiakis. Periods benefit our health.
(function(d, s, id){
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3&appId=770767426360150”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.7”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));