A 5-minute light walk every 30 minutes could save you from an early death, study says

A five-minute, light walk every half an hour could possibly save a person from early death, according to a new study. “Exercising daily does not alone reverse the harmful

health effects of sitting,” said Keith Diaz, a certified exercise physiologist and assistant professor of behavioural medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Centre in

New York, who helped co-author the study. “People who sit for hours on end develop chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, dementia and several types of cancer

at much higher rates than people who move throughout their day,” he wrote in the study, published recently in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

journal. Light walking throughout the day activates a person’s muscles regularly and serves as a great blood sugar regulator, according to the study. “The sitting

posture creates bends and constrictions in the blood vessels of the legs. This ultimately changes blood flow and can lead to increases in blood pressure,” he said. For the

study, the authors invited 11 participants to visit a laboratory where they sat for eight-hour sessions. They were allowed to work, read and use their mobile phones. During

the sedentary sessions, however, they followed one of five exercises prescribed by the researchers. The exercises included one minute of walking after every 30 minutes of

sitting, one minute of walking after 60 minutes of sitting, five minutes of walking after every 30 minutes of sitting, five minutes of walking after every 60 minutes of sitting

and no walking.