New Study Finds That 10 Minutes of Exercise Can Prevent Over 111,000 Premature Deaths
Ten minutes of moderate to vigorous daily physical activity among US adults over 40 can prevent 111,174 annual deaths, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The study estimated the number of preventable deaths when increasing physical activity, using a rigorous method and representative sample of the US civilian population with accelerometer data of 4840 adults aged 40 to 85 years.
Doubling the exercise time to 20 minutes a day almost doubled the number of preventable deaths, reaching 209,459. And with 30 minutes of daily exercise, the number rose to 272,297 — or about 17% of total annual deaths!
“In this context, a little additional physical activity can have a huge impact,” said Dr. Pedro Saint-Maurice, the study’s lead author and an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute.