Even short bursts of exercise such as running for the bus can slash the risk of dementia or type 2 diabetes by more than half, a study suggests.
Taking the stairs, playing actively with children or walking quickly between errands for just a few minutes a day could all have significant health benefits, experts say.
Researchers from Central South University, in Hunan, China, examined the impact of movement on the likelihood of dying or developing eight health conditions.
They analysed data on 96,408 UK adults who wore a device that tracked their movement for a week and then tracked their medical history for seven years to look for a diagnosis of heart disease, irregular heartbeat, type 2 diabetes, liver disease, long-term lung conditions, chronic kidney disease, dementia and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, which include arthritis and psoriasis.
The study found that people who spent a higher portion of their physical activity moving vigorously had a lower risk of all diseases – even if the amount of time was modest.
Those with the highest proportion of vigorous activity were 63 per cent less likely to develop dementia and 60 per cent less likely to develop type-2 diabetes than those who did no vigorous activity.
Professor Minxue Shen, from the Xiangya School of Public Health at Central South University, 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.
Taking the stairs, playing actively with children or walking quickly between errands for just a few minutes a day could all have significant health benefits, experts say.
‘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.
Professor 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.’
Professor Shen said 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, Professor 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.’
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Running for the bus could save your life – short bursts of exercise linked to lower risks of dementia, diabetes and heart disease, study finds