Just 22 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) eliminates the negative health effects associated with sitting all day, new research suggests: “Sedentary time was associated with higher mortality risk but only in individuals accumulating less than 22 min of MVPA per day. Higher MVPA levels were associated with lower mortality risk irrespective of the amount of sedentary time.”
You have to be going 4 mph, which is surely close to jogging—or doing something else similarly energetic.
The author Edvard Sagelv, of the Arctic University of Norway, said: “In our study, we found that only those people doing more than 12 hours per day sitting had a higher risk of death. We are talking about any sitting behaviour – such as being in the office or watching TV for long periods of time.
“In our study, every minute higher MVPA showed a lower risk of death, meaning if people were doing less than 22 minutes (such as 10 minutes) there was still a lower risk of death. However, doing 22 minutes eliminated the higher risk of death from sedentary time.
“This means that if doing 22 minutes or more per day, there was no excess risk from sedentary time. And, if doing more than 22 minutes per day, there was a lower risk of death overall. Basically, the more the better.”
Note that the UK government’s current recommendation is an amusingly close 21 minutes and 24 seconds of MVPA a day, marking Britons for death. If only you have MVPAd another 36 seconds, Britain! Then you’d still be alive!
