This simple daily activity may help you live longer and aid your heart
Climbing stairs instead of using the lift is associated with better heart health and a longer life, scientists say.
New research suggests regularly taking the stairs is linked to a 24% reduced risk of dying from any cause and a 39% lower likelihood of dying from heart disease.
The scientists said the findings, presented at the European Society of Cardiology's Preventive Cardiology conference in Athens, Greece, indicate that even short bursts of activity such as stair climbing could cut the risk of premature death.
Dr Sophie Paddock, of the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Foundation Trust, in Norwich, said: 'If you have the choice of taking the stairs or the lift, go for the stairs as it will help your heart.'
'Even brief bursts of physical activity have beneficial health impacts, and short bouts of stair climbing should be an achievable target to integrate into daily routines.'
Physical inactivity is associated with one in six deaths in the UK, according a report compiled by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
Evidence suggests regular exercise can reduce the risk of early death and heart disease.
The NHS recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every week.
For the study, the team looked at data from nine studies involving more than 480,000 people, aged between 35 and 84 years.
Healthy individuals as well as patients with heart disease were included in the analysis, of whom 53% were women.
In addition to reducing the risk of premature death, stair climbing was also found to be associated with a lower risk of heart disease including heart attack, heart failure and stroke.
Dr Paddock said: 'Based on these results, we would encourage people to incorporate stair climbing into their day-to-day lives.
'Our study suggested that the more stairs climbed, the greater the benefits – but this needs to be confirmed.
'So, whether at work, home or elsewhere, take the stairs.'
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BBC News
35 minutes ago
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Free heart checks offered by NHS to people across Sussex
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Telegraph
5 days ago
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The hospital where routine heart operations became a death sentence
Dorothy Readhead was hoping an innovative heart operation to replace a faulty valve would give her a new lease of life – but it turned out to be fatal. The 87-year-old was suffering from breathlessness, but was not suitable for open-heart surgery. A new, less invasive procedure to replace the aortic valve – called a transcatheter aortic valve implant (TAVI) – promised her a return to gardening and helping out at her local church. But doctors at Castle Hill Hospital, near Hull, botched the procedure after trying to force the new valve through the wrong leg, causing a major artery tear and the loss of five litres of blood during a six-hour operation. Mrs Readhead died a week later, in the summer of 2020, with her family none the wiser about what had occurred. Now, it has been revealed that a catalogue of surgical errors, doctor in-fighting and omissions from death certificates has led police to investigate the deaths of 11 patients who had the same procedure at Castle Hill's cardiology department between 2019 and 2023. Documents seen by The Telegraph reveal how 'a rolling power struggle' between consultants charged with running the cardiac unit distracted from caring for patients, while hospital executives alleged that doctors' abuse of the whistleblowing system had been a 'weapon of mass destruction that has harmed patients'. All of the 11 patients were having a TAVI installed. It involves doctors replacing a damaged valve by accessing an artery, often in the upper leg, and feeding a new valve through a wire all the way to the heart, where it will sit inside the old valve and restore normal function. 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She died a week later, with her death certificate failing to declare the operation as a cause. Instead, it cited 'hospital acquired pneumonia' and 'severe aortic stenosis' –- the condition the operation was supposed to treat. Christine Rymer, Mrs Readhead's daughter, only found out what her mother had endured after being approached by the BBC. She said: 'None of that was told to us. None of it. It just feels as if Mum was a guinea pig, which is not nice to think about.' Mrs Readhead's care was 'graded poor' by the RCP in its 2021 report because of the use of an 'inappropriate access site' during a procedure. It said this 'unfortunately resulted in an avoidable vascular complication'. An anaesthetist called in to help during the operation wrote in an email that the TAVI team's decisions had 'resulted in a disaster for this patient'. He said there was 'a change of plan without weighing the risks vs benefit for the patient, but having a 'have a go' approach'. Dr Thanjavur Bragadeesh, the then clinical director of the cardiac unit, called for a serious incident to be declared so there would be a full investigation into the case, which there later was. He was one of seven consultants who wrote a letter to Chris Long, the hospital's chief executive, and Dr Makani Purva, the medical director, saying they were 'very concerned about the safety and transparency of the TAVI service'. Dr Bragadeesh was later removed from his position as part of a restructuring of the unit's management, and would take the trust to an employment tribunal. He argued he had raised concerns around four deaths, but the tribunal ruled against him, saying 26 of 29 complaints had not been made within the required three-month time frame. 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The Guardian
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