When it comes to exercise, intensity is everything, and while a brisk daily 15-minute walk is enough to cut the risk of heart disease, a leisurely 30-minute stroll is not.
Scientists studying data from heart-rate wearables say doing more exercise doesn’t do much to reduce your risk from cardiovascular conditions unless it is of at least moderate intensity.
When people did more exercise overall but the amount of moderate to vigorous exercise they did remained the same, there was little improvement in heart health.
The researchers from the NIH Care Research Center at Cambridge add that easy activities such as washing the car or doing laundry, which have counted as exercise in earlier research, are not enough to stave off heart problems.
However, doing just two brisk walks for an hour and fifteen minutes a week or one run for the same amount of time a week is enough to keep the condition at bay.
This is considered the bare minimum for preventing the elevated risk of heart diseases like coronary artery disease and stroke connected with modern sedentary life, and should not be looked at as enough to improve cardiovascular strength.
The study collected data via an activity tracker on the wrist of more than 88,000 middle-aged adults, and followed up on their heart health for an average of around 7 years.
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