Lazy Weekends, Healthy Life: How Casual Exercise Can Slash Your Risk of 264 Diseases

Photo = Getty Images Korea. Evidence also suggests that so-called “weekend warriors,” who engage in intensive physical activity one or two days a week, can reduce the risk of more than 200 diseases, including heart disease and diabetes.

The key is “more than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week.” To promote health, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends engaging in 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, 75-150 minutes of high-intensity physical activity, or a combination of the two levels of physical activity. If these conditions are met, it has been proven to be as effective in preventing various diseases as exercising consistently throughout the week.

According to this study conducted by medical staff at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts General Hospital, weekend exercise was associated with reduced risk of developing a total of 264 diseases and showed no significant difference compared to regular exercise almost every day.

The research findings were published on the 26th (local time) in Circulation, the journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Photo = Getty Images Korea.

According to related reports such as the Guardian and Neuroscience News, co-senior author Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist at the Demulas Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, said: “(The study results) show that the amount of exercise rather that the exercise model has health benefits. “It shows that this is important,” he said. “The important thing is to fill that amount of exercise in the way that best suits you.”

The researchers analyzed data on 80,573 people from the British Biobank, which has accumulated medical data on more than 500,000 British adults. They wore wrist-worn accelerometers and their total physical activity and exercise time of varying intensities over the course of a week were measured.

The research subjects were divided into three categories. Based on the recommendation for moderate physical activity of 150 minutes or more, participants were classified as “weekend warriors,” “regular exercisers,” and “inactive.” Over several years of follow-up, researchers examined the association between types of physical activity and the incidence of 678 diseases across 16 disease types (including mental health, digestive, neurological, etc.).

Photo = Getty Images Korea.

The results of the study showed that both weekend exercisers and those who regularly engaged in physical activity significantly reduced the risk of more than 200 diseases compared to the inactive lifestyle group. Notably, the strongest association was observed for cardiometabolic diseases such as hypertension (23% decrease in weekend exercise warriors and 28% decrease in regular exercise waves) and diabetes (43% decrease % and 46%, respectively). Although the numbers were different, this association was confirmed in all disease categories examined.

According to the National Health Information Portal, moderate intensity exercise is defined as 50 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, and high intensity is defined as 70 percent or more of your maximum heart rate. Moderate-intensity activities include activities that leave you slightly breathless, such as brisk walking, moderate-speed cycling, doubles tennis, or swimming, while high-intensity activities include hiking, playing badminton, jogging, and jumping. rope. Usually, the point at which it becomes difficult to continue talking during exercise is considered the dividing line between moderate and vigorous exercise.

Photo = Getty Images Korea.

Similar results have been obtained in previous studies. In 2017, Dr. Gary O’Donovan, a physical activity researcher at Loughborough University in England, found that weekend exercisers and regular exercisers who achieved their fitness goals physical activity were less likely to die from cancer or cardiovascular disease than inactive people. A recent study by Chinese scientists published in the international academic journal ‘Nature Agigne’ also found that if you stick to the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity per week through weekend exercise, you will have a 23% reduction in dementia, a 13% reduction in stroke, a 49% reduction in Parkinson’s disease and a 26% reduction in depression. It has been found to reduce the risk of developing anxiety by 28%.

관련 자료:(Associations of “weekend warrior” physical activity with incident disease and cardiometabolic health-

Park Hae-sik, Donga.com reporter pistols@donga.com