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  Exercising for 1 hour/day can give you a long life

Exercising for 1 hour/day can give you a long life

Published : Jul 28, 2016, 6:02 am IST
Updated : Jul 28, 2016, 6:02 am IST

Even if you sit for long periods but do a minimum of one hour physical activity every day, you may be safe.

Even if you sit for long periods but do a minimum of one hour physical activity every day, you may be safe. A new study of over 1 million people revealed that doing at least one hour of physical activity per day like brisk walking or cycling for pleasure, may eliminate the increased risk of death associated with sitting for 8 hours a day.

Couch potatoes must be beware as sitting for long periods and being inactive can be the greatest risk of death. Physical inactivity is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers and is associated with more than 5 million deaths per year. The findings come from a new four-paper Series published in The Lancet and launched in London ahead of the Summer Olympic Games. Significantly, the authors warned there has been too little progress in tackling the global pandemic of physical inactivity since the 2012 Olympics, with a quarter of adults worldwide still failing to meet current recommendations on physical activity.

The researchers analysed data from 16 studies and found that people who sat for 8 hours a day but were physically active had a much lower risk of death compared to people who sat for fewer hours a day, but were not physically active. In fact, the increased risk of death associated with sitting for 8 hours a day was eliminated for people who did a minimum of 1 hour physical activity per day. The greatest risk of death was for people who sat for long periods of time and were inactive.

“There has been a lot of concern about the health risks associated with today’s more sedentary lifestyles,” says lead author Professor Ulf Ekelund from the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, Norway and the University of Cambridge, UK. “Our message is a positive one: It is possible to reduce — or even eliminate — these risks if we are active enough.” The researchers also found that sitting watching TV for over 3 hours per day was associated with an increased risk of death.

Although there has been progress in developing national policies, the authors found these were too often not being put into practice.

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi