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Physical Activity Volume That Helps The Heart Most

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Any increase in physical activity is good for your health, but a new study presented today in the European Heart Journal indicates that the risk of cardiovascular disease is reduced more when that activity is upped to at least a moderate level. Researchers from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre and the University of Cambridge led the study, which examined wrist-worn accelerometer-measured physical activity data from over 88,000 UK Biobank subjects.

The CDC’ most recent recommendations for physical activity advise individuals to try to be active every day and to engage in 150 minutes (for example, 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week) of moderate level activity (such as a brisk walk) or 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) of high intensity activity (such as jogging) per week. When discussing the importance of physical exercise for health, it has been unclear whether total physical activity volume is more significant or whether more strenuous activity gives extra advantages.

To date, questionnaires have been used by the majority of large-scale studies to gauge participants’ levels of physical activity, but physical activity intensity and duration are difficult to accurately recall, particularly when it comes to low intensity daily activities like washing the car or sorting laundry. Without accurate records of the length and intensity of physical activity, it hasn’t been possible to separate the effects of more intense physical activity from those of overall volume of physical activity.

In this study, they used wearable devices to accurately measure and record how much and how long 90,000 UK Biobank participants moved. 

In a recent analysis they found “that moderate and vigorous intensity activity gives a greater reduction in the overall risk of early death,” said first author Dr. Paddy Dempsey.

“More vigorous physical activity,” the first author added, “may also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, over and above the benefit seen from the total amount of physical activity, as it stimulates the body to adapt to the higher effort required. This is what we set out to investigate in the research published today.”

The authors looked into the link between the amount and intensity of physical activity and the risk of cardiovascular disease in 88,412 middle-aged adults in Great Britain who did not have cardiovascular disease. During the UK Biobank study, these people wore a research-grade activity tracker on their dominant wrist for a week. The activity data they collected was used to figure out the total amount of activity, and the authors also figured out how much of that activity was done at a moderate or vigorous level. Over an average of 6.8 years of follow-up, the number of cardiovascular events, such as ischaemic heart disease or cerebrovascular disease, was recorded among the study participants.

The authors found that the total amount of physical activity was strongly linked to a lower risk of heart disease. They also showed that getting more of the total amount of physical activity from moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was linked to an even lower risk of heart disease. Cardiovascular disease rates were 14% lower (95% CI: 5-23%) when moderate-to-vigorous physical activity made up 20% of total physical activity energy expenditure instead of 10%, even in people who were not very active. This is the same as shortening a 14-minute walk each day to a 7-minute jog.

Overall, the UK Biobank participants who did the most moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and had the highest overall levels of physical activity had the lowest rates of cardiovascular disease. But, interestingly, the rate of cardiovascular disease didn’t change much when the total amount of physical activity went up but the proportion of moderate-to-vigorous activity stayed the same. If the proportion of moderate-to-vigorous activity remained at 10%, for instance, there was no discernible impact on cardiovascular disease rates when overall physical activity levels were doubled. However, when the proportion of moderate-to-vigorous activity increased by 20% or 40%, the cardiovascular disease rate decreased by 23% and 40%, respectively.

“Our analysis of data from UK Biobank confirms,” adds senior author Professor Tom Yates, “that increasing the total amount of physical activity can lower the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke, but we also found that achieving the same overall amount of physical activity through higher intensity activity has a substantial additional benefit.”

The findings back up straightforward behavior-change messages like “every move counts” that urge people to engage in more moderately demanding activities as well as more total physical activity. This could be as simple as transforming a leisurely stroll into a brisk walk, but a variety of ways should encourage and assist people in determining what is most practical or fun for them, according to the author.

Source: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehac613

Image Credit: Getty

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