Two studies published this Wednesday in The Lancet and eClinicalMedicine confirm that moving a bit more, eating and sleeping a little better is firmly associated with lower mortality, especially in people who take the least care of these healthy habits. Both investigations make a thesis more robust, for which there is increasingly solid scientific evidence: reducing sedentary lifestyle, even if only a little, and improving the quality of diet and sleep has a very positive impact on health itself and on people's own survival. The Lancet study specifically focuses on how it affects people to do 5 more minutes a day of moderate physical activity, understanding as such walking, for example, at an average speed of 5 kilometers/hour. Just those 5 extra minutes a day are associated with a 10% reduction in all deaths in most adults (who accumulate about 17 minutes of moderate-intensity activity on average), and around 6% in all deaths in the least active people (who perform activity at this intensity on average for about 2 minutes a day). For its part, reducing sedentary time by 30 minutes a day is associated with an estimated 7% reduction in all deaths by adults who spend 10 hours sedentary a day, and around 3% if adopted by people who spend 12 hours a day without moving. In addition, staying active at least at a moderate intensity for an additional 10 minutes a day is associated with a 15% reduction in all deaths among most adults and 9% among the least active. The study is based on the analysis of data from more than 135,000 adults from seven cohorts in Norway, Sweden, and the United States, as well as from the UK Biobank, with an average follow-up of 8 years. Using physical activity measured through devices and sedentary time, the researchers estimate the proportion of deaths potentially preventable by small daily increases in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity or reductions in sedentary time. "This research consolidates the existing evidence to date with an extensive population sample, especially relevant in a context in which pharmacological approaches receive more attention than the proven relevance that living conditions have," says Luis Cereijo, researcher in Public Health at the University of Alcalá de Henares in a reaction to the study. Sleep, physical activity and nutrition In turn, the research collected in eClinicalMedicine, a journal from The Lancet group, concludes that combining small improvements in sleep, physical activity and diet results in a longer life, especially in people who have the worst habits. Five additional minutes of sleep, two minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (such as brisk walking or climbing stairs) and half an extra serving of vegetables a day could result in an extra year of life for those who have the worst rest, exercise and eating habits, the authors conclude. An optimal combination of these behaviors: sleeping between 7 and 8 hours, doing 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity a day and following a healthy diet could imply more than 9 additional years of life expectancy and good health. The conclusions of this second research are based on the study of almost 60,000 people from the UK Biobank, recruited between 2006 and 2010, and with an average follow-up of eight years. Both investigations focus on the general benefits to society based on data collected in rich countries and not on specific individuals. The authors highlight the need to carry out more studies of this type in nations with lower incomes. Small changes, big benefits Despite the observational nature of both studies, both reinforce the evidence that habit changes that are really very small and realistic can have important benefits in reducing all-cause mortality, reactions to these works collected in Science Media Centre agree. A little over a month ago, a study published in Nature Medicine concluded that moderate physical activity can delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease symptoms by up to seven years in people at risk of developing it. Last summer, a team of researchers from the CSIC Cajal Neuroscience Center demonstrated in an animal model that moderate physical exercise improves the health of the intestinal microbiota, which in turn has very positive repercussions on the cognitive performance of the brain. The journal JAMA also published another study a few months ago in which it was found that people who engage in physical activity from the age of 60 reduce the risk of death or cardiovascular disease by 30 to 40%.
