By John Salak –
Just four minutes of vigorous activity a day can be a lifesaver for millions of middle-aged women and men.
The University of Sydney reports this amount of incidental activity almost halved the risk of major cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks, for middle-aged women who do not otherwise engage in any structured exercise. Men also benefit but not as much. Those who averaged 5.6 minutes daily were only 16 percent less likely to experience a major cardiovascular event compared to inactive men, while a minimum of 2.3 minutes of daily activity was associated with an 11 percent reduction in their risk.
Women were undoubtedly the big beneficiaries of high-intensity physical activity that forms part of a daily routine, which is otherwise known as vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA).
“We found that a minimum of 1.5 minutes to an average of 4 minutes of daily vigorous physical activity, completed in short bursts lasting up to 1 minute, were associated with improved cardiovascular health outcomes in middle-aged women who do no structured exercise,” reported lead author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis.
Longer sessions of VILPA were linked to even significantly lower cardiovascular disease risk.
The findings are particularly good news for the millions of women who already suffer from cardiovascular issues. This is especially important since Australian researchers report that fewer than 20 percent of middle-aged or older adults engage in regular structured exercise.
Even though a higher percentage of men suffer from cardiovascular issues than women, millions are still at risk and suffer significant heart issues.
In fact, more than 60 million American women live with some form of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death for U.S. women. It’s estimated that these issues are responsible for the deaths of more than 300,000 women every year, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Making short bursts of vigorous physical activity a lifestyle habit could be a promising option for women who are not keen on structured exercise or are unable to do it for any reason. As a starting point, it could be as simple as incorporating, throughout the day, a few minutes of activities like stair climbing, carrying shopping, uphill walking, playing tag with a child or pet, or either uphill or power walking,” Stamatakis said.
The university’s findings were drawn from data involving almost 25,000 men and women aged 40 to 79 who reported not engaging in regular structured activity. The participants’ cardiovascular health was monitored through hospital and mortality records, tracking major adverse cardiovascular events, such as heart attack, stroke and heart failure.
After adjusting for factors such as lifestyle, socioeconomic position, cardiovascular health, co-existing conditions and ethnicity, the researchers found that the more VILPA women did, the lower their risk of a major cardiovascular event. Women who averaged 3.4 minutes of VILPA daily were 45 percent less likely to experience a major cardiovascular event. They were also 51 percent less likely to have a heart attack and 67 percent less likely to develop heart failure than inactive women.
Even daily VILPA of less than 3.4 minutes appeared to lower the risk of women experiencing a cardiovascular event. A minimum of 1.2 to 1.6 minutes, for example, was associated with a 30 percent lower risk of total major cardiovascular events, a 33 percent lower risk of heart attack and a 40 percent lower risk of heart failure.
Despite the results, the extent of the VILPA impact remains unclear, which is why Australian researchers are calling for additional studies.
“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,” Stamatakis 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.
