What is the exercise sweet spot to lower mortality risk among adults? 

The study highlighted that those who partook in two to four times the recommended amount of strenuous physical activity each week, the reduction was 21-23%, and those who did the same amount of moderate physical activity each week, it was 26-31%. Notably, the study findings were published in the American Heart Association’s peer-reviewed flagship journal, Circulation.

Interestingly, the researchers studied mortality data and medical records of more than 100,000 adults collected from two large prospective studies: the all-female Nurses’ Health Study and the all-male Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1988-2018. The participants whose data was examined were 63% women and more than 96% were white adults. They had an average age of 66 years and an average body mass index (BMI) of 26 kg/m2 during the 30-year follow-up period, according to the report.

Participants self-reported their leisure-time physical activity by completing a validated questionnaire for the Nurses’ Health Study or the Health Professionals Follow-up Study every two years, depending on AND ME report. The publicly available questionnaires, which were updated and expanded every two years, included questions about health information, medically diagnosed illnesses, family medical history, and personal habits such as cigarette and alcohol consumption and frequency of exercise, according to the report.

Meanwhile, exercise data was reported as the average time spent per week in various physical activities over the past year, and moderate activity was defined as walking, low-intensity exercise, weight lifting, and calisthenics. Vigorous activity included jogging, running, swimming, cycling, and other aerobic exercises. The analysis found that adults who engaged in twice the currently recommended range of moderate or vigorous physical activity each week had the lowest long-term mortality risk, the AND ME report said.

(With contributions from the ANI)

First article