Meeting the government’s physical activity guidelines can lower your risk of dying, but so can any level of exercise. People who engage in sufficient aerobic activity are 29 percent less likely to die from any cause, according to a new study.
The lowest risk of dying occurs between 150 and 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity. Exercise offers a number of health benefits, from boosting your mood to lowering your blood pressure to giving you a chance to socialize with your friends. It can also lower your risk of death — especially if you regularly meet the government’s physical activity guidelines — according to a new study published July 1 in The BMJTrusted Source.
“This was a nice study, and supports the idea of physical activity being an important lifestyle behavior that can improve health and well-being,” said John Jakicic, PhD, an exercise physiologist in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education, who wasn’t involved in the new research. Benefits of meeting physical activity guidelines
The 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for AmericansTrusted Source recommends that people do at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise, or 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or a combination of both. People should also aim to do moderate- or vigorous-intensity muscle strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week. In the new study, researchers looked at responses to the U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for 1997 to 2014 to see if people met the physical activity guidelines. This included almost 480,000 Americans ages 18 and older. Researchers also looked at national death records to identify how many of these people had died by the end of 2015. Compared to people who didn’t meet the recommended activity levels, people who engaged in sufficient aerobic activity were 29 percent less likely to die from any cause. Those who met the recommended muscle strengthening activity level had an 11 percent lower risk of dying from any cause. People who met the recommendations for both aerobic and muscle strengthening activities achieved even larger benefits — a 40 percent lower risk of death from any cause. “The results show that either aerobic or resistance exercise at [the recommended] levels was beneficial,” said Jakicic. “However, it appears that a combination [of the two] is even more beneficial at reducing all-cause mortality.”
Similar benefits were observed for deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and chronic lower respiratory tract diseases.
The study had a few limitations, including its observational nature, which means the researchers can’t show cause and effect.
