Just a few minutes of intense daily activity, such as sprinting for a bus or briskly climbing stairs, could significantly reduce the risk of serious health conditions including arthritis, heart disease, and dementia, new research suggests. Experts indicate that incorporating short, vigorous movements like actively playing with children or walking quickly between errands can yield substantial health benefits.
The study, conducted by researchers in China, analysed data from 96,408 participants in the UK Biobank study. Each individual wore a device to track their movement for a week. Over a seven-year period, experts then correlated this activity data with the likelihood of death or developing eight specific health conditions. These included heart disease, irregular heartbeat, type 2 diabetes, liver disease, chronic lung conditions, kidney disease, dementia, and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and psoriasis. The findings revealed that individuals who dedicated a greater proportion of their exercise time to vigorous activity experienced a lower risk across all these diseases.
The risk of dementia was 63% lower when compared to people who did no vigorous activity, while diabetes had a 60% lower risk.
The benefits remained even if the time spent exercising intensely was modest, researchers suggest.
Professor Minxue Shen, of the Xiangya School of Public Health at Central South University in Hunan, said: “Vigorous physical activity appears to trigger specific responses in the body that lower-intensity activity cannot fully replicate.
“During vigorous physical activity – the kind that makes you feel out of breath – your body responds in powerful ways.
“Your heart pumps more efficiently, your blood vessels become more flexible, and your body improves its ability to use oxygen.”
Intensity was more important for reducing the risk of inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and psoriasis, the study found.
However, for other conditions such as diabetes and chronic liver disease, the time spent exercising and intensity were both important.
Prof Shen added: “Vigorous activity also appears to reduce inflammation. This may help explain why we saw strong associations with inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis and arthritis.
“It may also stimulate chemicals in the brain that help keep brain cells healthy, which could help explain the lower risk of dementia.”
Prof Shen said that people do not need a gym membership to add intense activity to their day.
“Adding short bursts of activity that make you slightly breathless into daily life, like taking the stairs quickly, walking fast between errands or playing actively with children, can make a real difference.” he said.
“Even 15 to 20 minutes per week of this kind of effort – just a few minutes a day – was linked to meaningful health benefits.”
The NHS recommends that adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week.
However, Prof Shen said his findings – published in the European Heart Journal – suggest that the “composition of that activity matters, and matters differently depending on which diseases you’re trying to prevent”.
“This could open the door to more personalised physical activity recommendations based on an individual’s specific health risks,” he added.
“Vigorous activity may not be safe for everyone, especially older adults or people with certain medical conditions. For them, any increase in movement is still beneficial, and activity should be tailored to the individual.”
