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Just four minutes of vigorous daily physical activity significantly lowers the risk of heart attacks and heart failure in middle-aged women.
Woman walking upstairs Credit Shutterstock
Research from the University of Sydney reveals that an average of just four minutes of incidental vigorous physical activity each day could nearly reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks, by half for middle-aged women who do not participate in structured exercise.
“A study led by Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, Director of the Mackenzie Wearable Hub at the Charles Perkins Centre and the Faculty of Medicine and Health, found that engaging in at least 1.5 minutes to an average of 4 minutes of vigorous physical activity each day—completed in short bursts of up to 1 minute—was linked to improved cardiovascular health outcomes in middle-aged women who do not participate in structured exercise.”
High-intensity physical activity incorporated into a daily routine is “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity” (VILPA). Longer sessions of VILPA are associated with a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Researchers suggest that since less than 20 per cent of middle-aged and older adults participate in regular structured exercise, engaging in VILPA could be a beneficial alternative.
“Adopting short bursts of vigorous physical activity as a regular habit could be a beneficial option for women who may not enjoy structured exercise or are unable to engage in it for various reasons. To start, this can be as simple as incorporating a few minutes of activities throughout the day such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries, walking uphill, playing tag with a child or pet, or engaging in power walking,” said Professor Stamatakis.
The study analyzed data from 22,368 participants, consisting of 13,018 women and 9,350 men aged 40 to 79, who reported not engaging in regular structured exercise. This data was collected from the UK Biobank, where participants wore physical activity trackers nearly 24 hours a day for a week, between 2013 and 2015.
Cardiovascular health was monitored through hospital and mortality records, tracking major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), such as heart attack, stroke, and heart failure, until November 2022.
After accounting for factors such as lifestyle, socioeconomic status, cardiovascular health, co-existing conditions, and ethnicity, the researchers found that women who engaged in more vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) had a lower risk of experiencing major cardiovascular events. Specifically, women who averaged just 3.4 minutes of VILPA daily were 45 percent less likely to encounter a major cardiovascular event. Additionally, they were 51 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack and 67 per cent less likely to develop heart failure compared to women who did not engage in any VILPA.
Even when daily VILPA levels were lower than 3.4 minutes, they were still linked to lower cardiovascular event risk. A minimum of 1.2 to 1.6 minutes of VILPA per day was associated with a 30 per cent lower risk of total major cardiovascular events, a 33 per cent lower risk of heart attack, and a 40 per cent lower risk of heart failure.
However, men reaped fewer benefits from tiny bursts of VILPA. Those who averaged 5.6 minutes daily were only 16 per cent less likely to experience a major cardiovascular event compared with men who did none. A minimum of 2.3 minutes per day was associated with only an 11 per cent risk reduction.
Professor Stamatakis said more testing was needed to understand how VILPA may improve cardiovascular health.
“To date, it hasn’t been clear whether short bursts of VILPA lower the risk of specific types of cardiovascular events, like heart attack or stroke. We aimed to identify minimum daily thresholds and feasible amounts for testing in community programs and future trials,” he said.
“Importantly, the beneficial associations we observed were in women who committed to short bursts of VILPA almost daily. This highlights the importance of habit formation, which is not always easy. VILPA should not be seen as a quick fix—there are no magic bullets for health. But our results show that even a little bit higher intensity activity can help and might be just the thing to help people develop a regular physical activity – or even exercise – habit,” he said.
In middle-aged people, having risk factors like blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol that are not well-controlled, combined with not following certain healthy habits, including exercise, diet and sleep, are linked to a higher risk of stroke, dementia or depression later in life,.
The eight cardiovascular and brain health factors, known as the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8, are being active, eating better, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, maintaining healthy blood pressure, getting enough sleep, and controlling cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
“Brain health is paramount for the optimal well-being of every person, enabling us to function at our highest level and constantly adapt in the world,” said study author Santiago Clocchiatti-Tuozzo, MD, MHS, of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Our study found that making these healthy lifestyle choices in middle age can have meaningful impacts on brain health later in life.”
For the study, researchers evaluated data from 316,127 people, with an average age of 56, who were followed over five years.
Researchers analyzed participants’ scores across the eight essential cardiovascular health factors and organized them into three categories: optimal, intermediate, and poor.
Of the total group, 64,474 had optimal scores, 190,919 had intermediate scores, and 60,734 had poor scores.
Researchers then evaluated health records to identify who developed any of the following neurological conditions: stroke, dementia or late-life depression. Poor brain health was defined as developing these conditions during the follow-up years.
1.2% of participants met the definition for poor brain health, with 3,753 conditions. Of those with optimal Life’s Essential Eight scores, 0.7% met the definition of poor brain health, compared to 1.2% with intermediate scores and 1.8% with poor scores.
After adjusting for factors that could affect the risk of these three neurological conditions, such as age, sex, race and ethnicity, researchers found that people with poor scores on the healthy lifestyle factors were more than twice as likely to develop any of the three neurological conditions compared to those people with optimal scores. Researchers also found that people with an intermediate score had a 37% higher risk of having one of the three neurological conditions than those with an optimal score.
“Because the risk factors we looked at are all ones that people can work to improve, our findings highlight the potential benefits of using these eight cardiovascular and brain health factors to guide healthy lifestyle choices,” Clocchiatti-Tuozzo said. “More research is needed to understand this link between lifestyle habits and brain health, as well as how social factors like race and ethnicity can influence this connection.”
• Americans over the age of 40 could live an extra 5.3 years if all were as active as the top 25% of the population
• For the least active 25% of Americans aged 40+, an extra hour’s walk could add an average of 6.3 hours of additional life expectancy.
According to a new study led by Griffith University researchers, if everyone in the United States population was as active as the top 25 per cent, individuals over 40 could add five years to their lives.
Physical activity has long been recognized as beneficial for health; however, estimates have varied regarding the extent of benefits derived from specific amounts of activity, both for individuals and populations.
This latest study used accelerometry to gain an accurate view of the population’s physical activity levels instead of relying on survey responses, as in other studies. It found that the benefits were around twice as substantial as previous estimates.
It found the most active quarter of people in the community had a 73 per cent lower risk of death than their least active counterparts.
For the least active quartile, a one-hour walk could potentially provide around six additional hours of life.
Lead researcher Professor Lennert Veerman said this least-active cohort had the most significant potential for health gains.
“If you’re already very active or in that top quartile, an extra hour’s walk may not make much difference as you’ve, in a sense, already ‘maxed out’ your benefit,” he said.
“If the least active quartile of the population over age 40 were to increase their activity level to that of the most active quartile, however, they might live, on average, about 11 years longer.
“This is not an unreasonable prospect, as 25 per cent of the population is already doing it.
“It can be any type of exercise but roughly the equivalent of just under three hours of walking per day.”
The research team suggested low levels of physical activity could even rival the adverse effects of smoking, with other research finding each cigarette could take 11 minutes from a smoker’s life.
By extension, a more active lifestyle could also offer protective effects against heart disease, stroke, certain cancers, and other chronic illnesses. The study’s findings highlight a need for national physical activity guidelines to be revisited using these methods.
Dr Veerman said physical activity had been vastly underestimated in its capacity to improve health outcomes, suggesting even modest increases in movement could lead to significant life-extension benefits.
“If there’s something you could do to more than halve your risk of death, physical activity is enormously powerful,” he said.
“If we could increase investment in promoting physical activity and creating living environments that promote it, such as walkable or cyclable neighbourhoods and convenient, affordable public transport systems, we could increase longevity and reduce pressure on our health systems and the environment.”