Authoritative magazine: This kind of exercise, just 10 minutes a day, can dramatically reduce the risk of heart disease and death

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the world and also the leading cause of death in my country. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, nearly 18 million people die from cardiovascular disease each year, accounting for more than 30% of the total number of deaths worldwide. The high mortality and morbidity rates of cardiovascular disease are a major global public health issue that urgently needs to be addressed.
Moderate to vigorous intermittent exercise (MV-ILPA) is moderate and vigorous exercise intensity, performed in an intermittent manner, each lasting 1-2 minutes. It refers to short-term intense exercise in daily life, such as chasing a bus, climbing stairs, running in order not to be late for work, etc.

Recently, researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia and the University of Oxford in the UK published a research paper titled "Brief bouts of device-measured intermittent lifestyle physical activity and its association with major adverse cardiovascular events and mortality in people who do not exercise: a prospective cohort study" in "The Lancet Public Health", a subsidiary of The Lancet.
The study showed that moderate to vigorous intermittent exercise lasting just 5-10 minutes per day can dramatically reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. Compared with those who performed MV-ILPA for less than 1 minute per bout, those who performed 5-10 minutes of MV-ILPA per bout had a 52% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 41% lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events.

In this study, researchers analyzed 25,241 participants in the UK Biobank database, aged between 42 and 78 years old. The participants' movement parameters were recorded by wearing accelerometers. The MV-ILPA duration was divided into: less than 1 minute, 1-3 minutes, 3-5 minutes, and 5-10 minutes. The relationship between moderate to vigorous intermittent exercise and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all-cause mortality was analyzed.

Overall, 824 major adverse cardiovascular events and 1111 deaths were recorded during the 8-year follow-up.

Among all participants, the average duration of MV-ILPA per day was 26.8 minutes, with 59.7% having bouts of less than 1 minute, 27.5% having bouts lasting 1-3 minutes, 5.7% having bouts lasting 3-5 minutes, and 4.4% having bouts lasting 5-10 minutes.

The analysis found that those with bouts of less than 1 minute had a 4.28% risk of death within 5 years, those with bouts lasting 1-3 minutes had a 2.83% risk of death within 5 years, those with bouts lasting 3-5 minutes had a 2.43% risk of death within 5 years, and those with bouts lasting 5-10 minutes had a 2.09% risk of death within 5 years.

At the same time, people whose bouts lasted less than 1 minute had a 3.5% risk of major adverse cardiovascular events within 5 years, people whose bouts lasted 1-3 minutes had a 2.27% risk of major adverse cardiovascular events within 5 years, people whose bouts lasted 3-5 minutes had a 2.07% risk of major adverse cardiovascular events within 5 years, and people whose bouts lasted 5-10 minutes had a 2.06% risk of major adverse cardiovascular events within 5 years.

The study found that compared with people whose bouts lasted less than 1 minute, those who had bouts lasting 1-3 minutes had a 34% lower risk of death, those who had bouts lasting 3-5 minutes had a 44% lower risk of death, and those who had bouts lasting 5-10 minutes had a 52% lower risk of death.

For major adverse cardiovascular events, compared with those with bouts of less than 1 minute, those who lasted 1-3 minutes per bout had a 29% lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, those who lasted 3-5 minutes per bout had a 38% lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, and those who lasted 5-10 minutes per bout had a 41% lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events.

Association of MV-ILPA with all-cause mortality and MACE

In addition, the researchers found that among people whose bouts were less than 1 minute, exercise duration of less than 1 minute also provided benefits, reducing the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality, when high-intensity exercise accounted for at least 15% of the total MV-ILPA duration.

The researchers said the study showed that moderate to vigorous intermittent exercise can reduce the risk of major cardiac events. If possible, it is best to exercise for 3-5 minutes each time, which can significantly reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality.

Still, the researchers stress that this is an observational study and cannot establish cause and effect, and the take-home message here is that any type of exercise is good for health, but the more effort you put in and the longer you do it, the greater the benefits.

In summary, the results suggest that 5 to 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous intermittent exercise per day can acutely reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality.

Paper link:

https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667 (23)00183-4