Running just a few minutes per day 'cuts risk of dying early'

Running for just a few minutes regularly can add years to your life even if it is at a slow pace, researchers have found, saying that exercise is as important as stopping smoking for your health.

A study has found that runners were 30 per cent less likely to die over 15 years than non-runners and 45 per cent less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke.

The findings are the latest to show that even a small amount of exercise is beneficial for health.

The biggest reduction in mortality were seen in the group doing a little exercise compared with those who did none.

For example the group who ran up to six miles a week cut their risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke by almost 60 per cent compared with non-runners where as the group who ran more than 20 miles a week were only 20 per cent less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than non-runners.

The current recommendations are that everyone should do three hours of exercise per week, but the researchers found substantial health benefits at lower levels than this.

Dr Duck-chul Lee, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the Iowa State University, said they found that runners who ran less than an hour per week have the same mortality benefits compared to runners who ran more than three hours per week.

Researchers also looked at running behaviour patterns and found that those who persistently ran over a period of six years on average had the most significant benefits, with a 29 per cent lower risk of death for any reason and 50 per cent lower risk of death from heart disease or stroke.

Dr Lee said: "Since time is one of the strongest barriers to participate in physical activity, the study may motivate more people to start running and continue to run as an attainable health goal for mortality benefits.

"Running may be a better exercise option than more moderate intensity exercises for healthy but sedentary people since it produces similar, if not greater, mortality benefits in five to 10 minutes compared to the 15 to 20 minutes per day of moderate intensity activity that many find too time consuming."

The findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

An accompanying comment article Dr Chi Pang Wen, of the Institute of Population Health Sciences, in Taiwan and colleagues, said: "A 5-min run is as good as 15-min walk, and a 25-min run can generate benefits that would require four times longer to accomplish by walking. As the researchers indicated, for younger individuals who are pressed for time, running is a far better option for time efficiency.

"Exercise is a miracle drug in many ways. The list of diseases that exercise can prevent, delay, modify progression of, or improve outcomes for is longer than we currently realise.

"We do not need to be athletes to exercise – it should be part of all of our daily routines."

Oliver Monfredi, clinical lecturer in Cardiovascular Medicine at University of Manchester said running even at a slow pace is considered moderate intensity exercise and this study proves what physicians have long thought, that any exercise is better than none.

He said: "Getting your heart rate up on a regular basis is better than being a couch potato. It improves your blood pressure, your cholesterol levels and a host of other measures.

"The message is certainly encouraging. I would urge people in their 50s, 60s and 70s who are taking up exercise to go to a gym and get an assessment and advice on how to exercise safely and slowly at first. Listen to your body, any chest pain, dizziness and palpitations are symptoms that should be taken notice of.

"We know that doing a little and regularly over a long period of time is good but equally doing too much is not good."

The study included more than 55,000 people aged between 18 and 100 who were followed up for 15 years.

One quarter of them said they were leisure time runners.

Christopher Allen, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Protecting ourselves against life-changing conditions like a heart attack or stroke should be everyone’s top priority. But the reality is not everyone is managing to achieve their 150minutes of physical activity a week.

“What this study proves is that when it comes to keeping physically active, every step counts towards helping you maintain a healthier heart.

“Breaking your exercise down into 10-minute chunks can make this goal much more achievable and can help prolong your life by reducing your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.”

Prof Albert Ferro, Professor of Cardiovascular Clinical Pharmacology at King's College London said: "This is an important study because it establishes for the first time, in a large population of subjects studied,

that even very low level exercise is associated with improved survival; and, in fact, in this study high level exercise was not associated with any greater benefits than low level exercise - and indeed low level exercise may have been more protective.

"In the UK, government guidelines advocate, for adults, two and half hours each week of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity and adults are asked to aim to do some physical activity every day in addition to muscle strengthening activity twice a week.

"This study suggests that in fact maximal survival benefits may be achieved with weekly running of under 51 minutes, equivalent to 5-10 minutes running per day, running less than 6 miles 1 to 2 times a week, and at low speed, under 6 miles per hour.

"All of these targets are much easier for people to achieve in their daily lives, and may therefore be taken up much more readily by the general public."

The findings:

Running at 6mph or slower were 21 per cent less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than non-runners.

Running for seven minutes a day or 51 minutes per week cut the risk of a heart or stroke death by 55 per cent.

Running up to six miles a week cut the chance of a fatal heart attack or stroke by almost 54 per cent.

Running three times a week cut the chance of a fatal heart attack or stroke by 61 per cent which was slightly more than those who ran once or twice a week.

The optimum running speed was between 7.1mph and 7.6mph which cut the risk of a dying from a heart attack or stroke by 60 per cent.