Latest news with #EmmanuelStamatakis
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Health
- Time of India
Doing THIS exercise for five minutes a day can lower blood pressure, experts reveal
A recent study by the ProPASS Consortium reveals that even brief bursts of physical activity, as little as five minutes daily, can significantly lower blood pressure. Replacing sedentary habits with 20-27 minutes of exercise, like uphill walking or stair climbing, can also make a clinically significant difference. High blood pressure or hypertension is a major risk factor for several serious health conditions, including heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney disease, and other complications. Managing blood pressure is crucial for overall health and well-being. Making certain lifestyle changes can help lower blood pressure, and one of them is regular exercise. A new study has found that even five minutes of physical activity can help manage blood pressure! According to research led by experts from the ProPASS (Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep) Consortium, an international academic collaboration led by the University of Sydney and University College London (UCL), even small amount of physical activity, such as uphill walking or stair-climbing, can lower blood pressure. The findings are published in Circulation . What is hypertension Hypertension, or a consistently elevated blood pressure level, is one of the biggest causes of premature death globally. This condition affects 1.28 billion adults around the world. High blood pressure happens when the force of the blood pushing against the walls of the blood vessels is too high. It can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney damage, and many other health problems. Due to the lack of any symptoms, it is often described as a 'silent killer'. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 2025 Top Trending local enterprise accounting software [Click Here] Esseps Learn More Undo Even five minutes of exercise matters Image Credits: Canva The researchers found that just five minutes of activity a day potentially reduces blood pressure. Also, replacing sedentary behaviours with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day made a clinically significant difference in blood pressure. These activities could be uphill walking, stair-climbing, running and cycling. 'High blood pressure is one of the biggest health issues globally, but unlike some major causes of cardiovascular mortality, there may be relatively accessible ways to tackle the problem in addition to medication. The finding that doing as little as five extra minutes of exercise per day could be associated with measurably lower blood pressure readings emphasises how powerful short bouts of higher intensity movement could be for blood pressure management,' joint senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, the Director of the ProPASS Consortium from the Charles Perkins Centre, said in a statement. The study To understand how daily movement affects blood pressure, the researchers analyzed health data from 14,761 volunteers across five countries. Each participant used a wearable thigh-mounted accelerometer, which can monitor movement and blood pressure levels throughout the day and night. The researchers split the daily activity into six categories: sleep, sedentary behaviour (such as sitting), slow walking, fast walking, standing, and more vigorous exercise such as running, cycling, or stair climbing. The team used statistical models to see how swapping one activity for another would affect blood pressure . They found that replacing sedentary behaviour with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day could potentially reduce cardiovascular disease by up to 28% at a population level. What are the experts saying 'Our findings suggest that, for most people, exercise is key to reducing blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of movement such as walking. The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn't take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure. What's unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from running for a bus or a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines,' first author Dr. Jo Blodgett from the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at UCL and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health said. 'For those who don't do a lot of exercise, walking still has some positive benefits for blood pressure. But if you want to change your blood pressure, putting more demand on the cardiovascular system through exercise will have the greatest effect,' Dr. Blodgett added. Common Blood Pressure Medications Linked to Low Risk of Total Knee Replacement Professor Mark Hamer, joint senior author of the study and ProPASS Deputy Director from UCL, said: 'Our findings show how powerful research platforms like the ProPASS consortium are for identifying relatively subtle patterns of exercise, sleep, and sedentary behaviour, that have significant clinical and public health importance.' One step to a healthier you—join Times Health+ Yoga and feel the change
Time of India
a day ago
- Health
- Time of India
Stuck at your desk? Sitting all day could be deadly. Study reveals how much exercise can save your life
If your day revolves around back-to-back Zoom calls, endless emails, and barely moving from your office chair, you're not alone — and not off the hook either. Scientists now say that while desk jobs may be the norm, they don't have to be a death sentence — provided you move, and move with purpose. A 2020 meta-analysis, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, has offered some tangible answers to the age-old question: how much exercise does it actually take to cancel out the effects of sitting all day? The 40-Minute Fix for 10-Hour Sitting Marathons According to the study, just 30 to 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity per day can effectively balance out 10 hours of daily sedentary behavior. This isn't just a vague estimate — the research analyzed data from over 44,000 people across four countries, all of whom wore fitness trackers, making this one of the most objective assessments in the field to date. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Texas: New Roofing Tech Will Cut Roofings Costs in These Zips Metal Roof USA Learn More Undo The researchers concluded: "In active individuals doing about 30-40 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, the association between high sedentary time and risk of death is not significantly different from those with low amounts of sedentary time." So, if you're pedaling on a cycle, walking briskly around your neighborhood, or even vigorously gardening for a good half hour, you're actively undoing the harm done by sitting through long workdays. You Might Also Like: Want to lose weight faster at the gym? Science reveals the most-effective workout order Small Movements, Big Wins While 30–40 minutes of movement is the sweet spot, experts emphasize that any activity counts. The research supports the idea that moving more — even standing periodically — can have a positive effect on health. So whether it's dancing in your kitchen, running after your toddler, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator, every bit matters. In fact, this study was released alongside the World Health Organization's 2020 Global Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour. These guidelines recommend 150–300 minutes of moderate activity or 75–150 minutes of vigorous activity per week — perfectly aligned with the meta-analysis findings. Emmanuel Stamatakis, a lead researcher from the University of Sydney, underscored this in the report, noting: "People can still protect their health and offset the harmful effects of physical inactivity." Standing Up Is the First Step The WHO guidelines further suggest rethinking our everyday routines. Walking your dog, cleaning the house, or cycling to the grocery store are all easy, accessible ways to chip away at sedentary habits. If jumping into a 40-minute fitness regime feels overwhelming, researchers say — start small and build gradually. You Might Also Like: Think diet and exercise are enough? Ignoring this one thing still puts your health at risk Interestingly, the study authors acknowledged that there's still a lot to learn. Stamatakis added, "We are still not clear, for example, where exactly the bar for 'too much sitting' is. But this is a fast-paced field of research, and we will hopefully have answers in a few years' time." Takeaway for the Time-Starved Professional The verdict is clear: your desk job doesn't have to be your downfall. With just a 30–40-minute burst of activity daily, you can offset hours of stillness and significantly reduce health risks. So the next time you consider skipping that evening walk or spinning class, remember — your body's best defence against a sedentary lifestyle is movement. Even a little, done consistently, can keep you healthier and happier in the long run. So, stuck at a desk? Lace up your sneakers when the clock hits off. Your life may depend on it. You Might Also Like: Celebrity fitness trainer says mere workouts are not enough to lose weight. Check his pre- and post exercise meal plan
Washington Post
15-04-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
Don't exercise? Moving a bit faster may make you healthier.
If you're not a fan of working out or simply don't have time, we've got good news for you. Doing everyday chores and activities a bit more briskly might lead to big gains in health and longevity, a new study shows. That means you could tweak how you clean your house, climb stairs or run for the bus and get some of the benefits of exercise without a trip to the gym. In the study, published this month in Circulation, researchers analyzed the daily movements of more than 20,000 adults over the course of about a week. None formally exercised. But some moved with more zip than others as they went about their lives, taking the stairs instead of the escalator, for instance, or speed vacuuming their living rooms. The amounts of these everyday exertions were small, the study found, often less than five minutes a day, but the impacts appeared outsized. Those who moved around briskly were as much as half as likely to experience or of a heart attack or stroke in the following years as people who almost always dawdled through their days. The study suggests that 'it's a good idea to find ways to fit exertion into your daily life,' said Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor at the University of Sydney, who led the study. 'But that doesn't mean you have to actually exercise.' The study advances a growing area of research into whether and how we can be healthy without exercise. For the past few years, Stamatakis and his colleagues have been using data from the immense UK Biobank to explore that issue. The biobank has enrolled tens of thousands of British adults, who provided health information and tissue samples. Many of them also wore advanced activity trackers for a week, which provided detailed readouts of how they spent almost every moment of their days at work and home. In past studies from his lab, Stamatakis and his co-authors analyzed those readouts and related health and death records. They discovered that people who said they never exercised but who often moved around at what scientists call a vigorous pace — meaning they got out of breath as they ran for a bus or sprinted intensely up the stairs — typically developed fewer serious diseases and lived longer than people who rarely, if ever, moved vigorously. But Stamatakis knew, as an exercise scientist, that a lot of people are intimidated by words like vigorous and intense, in the context of exercise and movement. So, for the latest study, he and colleagues decided to see whether gentler forms of everyday activities might also be associated with better health. In simple terms, physical activity can be light, moderate or vigorous, depending on how hard you push yourself. Light-intensity activities feel easy enough that you can chat with someone without puffing and even sing. During moderate activity, you're still able to talk, a little breathlessly, but not sing. When activity grows vigorous, you can barely speak without gasping, and you certainly can't sing. To conduct their study, Stamatakis and his colleagues used algorithmic machine learning to closely analyze movement patterns in 10-second increments and determine whether someone was moving lightly, moderately or vigorously. They used biobank tracker records from 24,139 adults who never formally exercised, then cross-checked against hospital and death data. What they found was that light everyday activities, which might include strolls to pick up lunch or visit the copier, slightly reduced risks for cardiovascular problems and deaths during the next eight years, compared to people who recorded almost zero activity (meaning they remained seated for almost the entire day). But people needed more than two hours a day of light activity to see much benefit. Moderate everyday activity was far more potent. If people spent 24 minutes a day moving around at a moderate pace, their risks of developing or dying from cardiovascular problems dropped by as much as 50 percent. And the most effective dose of vigorous everyday movement was even lower. Barely five minutes a day of pacing around or rushing places while huffing and puffing was associated with nearly 40 percent less likelihood of dying from heart problems. From a practical standpoint, the takeaway of the new study is straightforward, Stamatakis said. 'Look for opportunities' to ramp up the intensity of chores and activities, he said, especially if you don't often exercise. 'Taking the stairs will be moderate activity for most people,' he said. Hurrying up them will be vigorous. Or pick up the pace while you walk, swinging your arms, 'which is what we call sprint walking,' he said, 'and is moderate. Or garden as fast as you can. There are plenty of opportunities to add a little more exertion' to what you're going to be doing anyway. The study has limitations, of course. It mostly involved White, educated Brits. It's also possible that people who move through chores slowly have underlying health problems, predisposing them to heart risks, without any contribution from their daily movements. But the researchers excluded anyone who experienced heart problems in the first year of the study, lessening that possibility. Perhaps most important, the findings aren't meant to discourage exercise. 'You can do both,' Stamatakis said, exercise and push yourself sometimes as you go about your day, assuming that your health and circumstances allow. 'It's quite a good study, both the methodology and the message,' said Martin Gibala, an exercise scientist at McMaster University in Canada, who studies exercise intensity but was not involved with this research. The results suggest that, even if you choose not to exercise, sprinkling a little moderate or vigorous everyday activity into your life 'can have meaningful health effects.'
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Revealed: How Much Exercise You Need to 'Offset' a Day of Sitting
We know that spending lots of time sitting down isn't good for us, but just how much exercise is needed to counteract the negative health effects of sitting down all day? Research suggests about 30-40 minutes per day of building up a sweat should do it. Up to 40 minutes of "moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity" every day is about the right amount to balance out 10 hours of sitting still, the research says – although any amount of exercise or even just standing up helps to some extent. That's based on a meta-analysis study published in 2020 analyzing nine previous studies, involving a total of 44,370 people in four different countries who were wearing some form of fitness tracker. The analysis found the risk of death among those with a more sedentary lifestyle went up as time spent engaging in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity went down. "In active individuals doing about 30-40 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, the association between high sedentary time and risk of death is not significantly different from those with low amounts of sedentary time," the researchers explained in their paper. In other words, putting in some reasonably intensive activities – cycling, brisk walking, gardening – can lower your risk of an earlier death right back down to what it would be if you weren't doing all that sitting around, to the extent that this link can be seen in the amassed data of many thousands of people. While meta-analyses like this one always require some elaborate dot-joining across separate studies with different volunteers, timescales, and conditions, the benefit of this particular piece of research is that it relied on relatively objective data from wearables – not data self-reported by the participants. At the time, the study was published alongside the release of the World Health Organization 2020 Global Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour, put together by 40 scientists across six continents. The British Journal of Sports Medicine (BHSM) also put out a special edition to carry both the study and the revised guidelines. "As these guidelines emphasize, all physical activity counts and any amount of it is better than none," said physical activity and population health researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis from the University of Sydney in Australia. "People can still protect their health and offset the harmful effects of physical inactivity." The research based on fitness trackers is broadly in line with the 2020 WHO guidelines, which recommend 150-300 mins of moderate intensity or 75-150 mins of vigorous intensity physical activity every week to counter sedentary behavior. Walking up the stairs instead of taking the lift, playing with children and pets, taking part in yoga or dancing, doing household chores, walking, and cycling are all put forward as ways in which people can be more active – and if you can't manage the 30-40 minutes right away, the researchers say, start off small. Making recommendations across all ages and body types is tricky, though the 40-minute time frame for activity fits in with previous research. As more data gets published, we should learn more about how to stay healthy even if we have to spend extended periods of time at a desk. "Although the new guidelines reflect the best available science, there are still some gaps in our knowledge," said Stamatakis. "We are still not clear, for example, where exactly the bar for 'too much sitting' is. But this is a fast-paced field of research, and we will hopefully have answers in a few years' time." The research was published here, and the 2020 guidelines are available here, in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Further information is available here. An earlier version of this article was published in November 2020. Delayed REM Sleep May Be an Early Signal of Alzheimer's, Study Finds Caffeine in Your Blood Could Affect Body Fat And Diabetes Risk, Study Reveals Leading Cause of Death in US Claims A Life Every 34 Seconds
