Thank God I'm Natural

Calling all couch potatoes. You can live an extra three years if you exercise for just 15 minutes a day – half the 30-minute minimum prescribed by the World Health Organization.

That’s the heart-warming news from an eight-year study on 400,000 people of all ages in Taiwan.

“Halving the daily exercise requirement still yielded significant benefits for men and women, young and old, smokers and non-smokers, and even for high-risk groups such as diabetics and people with high blood pressure,” says Chi-Pang Wen of the National Health Research Institutes in Taipei, Taiwan, head of the research team.

Wen divided his participants into five groups according to the level of exercise they routinely did. He placed them in categories ranging from completely inactive to very active depending on the duration and intensity of the activities they performed – such as walking, running or playing sports. The more exercise they did, the greater the benefits, but the biggest surprise was the disproportionately large leap in benefits for those doing just a little exercise – around 15 minutes a day – as opposed to none at all. That extra sweat added three extra years beyond the lifespan of the idle.

The risk of cancer also fell by 10 per cent and risk of heart disease by 20 per cent, which is significant. “

In short, the study confirmed that even small blocks of exercise can be beneficial.

Many people believe that in order to achieve any benefit from exercise, it must be long and hard, but this study shows this is not the case. So, we at TGIN strongly recommend that you incorporate some amount of exercise into your daily routine – even if its something small like taking the stairs, parking farther away from the grocery store entrance, or walking around the block on your lunch break.

Source: Andy Coghlan (edited by TGIN for length)