According to a new study, between four and five minutes of “vigorous physical activity” each day can greatly reduce the risk of cancer in people who have previously been “non-exercisers.”
The research, conducted at Australia’s University of Sydney, found that participants who engaged in “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity” (VILPA) for an average of four-and-a-half minutes each day reduced their risk of “physical activity-related cancer incidence” by 32 percent.
Those who exercised for over three minutes, but under four, each day limited their cancer risk by 17 to 18 percent. (Physical activity-related cancers include bladder, stomach, lung and kidney cancers.)
VILPA is defined in the report as “brief and sporadic bouts of vigorous physical activity during daily living.” It can include anything from power walking to carrying heavy grocery bags and engaging in energetic household chores.
The study tracked 22,398 adults who were non-exercisers. Participants averaged 62 years old and wore activity monitors for one week. Meanwhile, researchers studied their medical diagnoses and hospitalization histories across the last six-to-seven years.
“We know the majority of middle-aged people don’t regularly exercise, which puts them at increased cancer risk, but it’s only through the advent of wearable technology like activity trackers that we are able to look at the impact of short bursts of incidental physical activity done as part of daily living,” the study’s lead author, Emmanuel Stamatakis, said in a press release.
“It’s quite remarkable to see that upping the intensity of daily tasks for as little as four to five minutes a day, done in short bursts of around one minute each, is linked to an overall reduction in cancer risk by up to 18 [percent], and up to 32 [percent] for cancer types linked to physical activity,” he added.
“We need to further investigate this link through robust trials, but it appears that VILPA may be a promising cost-free recommendation for lowering cancer risk in people who find structured exercise difficult or unappealing,” Stamatakis concluded.
from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/gra0jX5
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