How Much Exercise is Required to Lower Chronic Disease Risk?

Physical activity levels several times higher than the current recommended minimum level are associated with significant reductions in the risk of some cancers, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and ischemic stroke, according to the results of a recent study.

In order to quantify the dose-response associations between physical activity and the risk of 5 major diseases (breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and ischemic stroke events), researchers conducted a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of data from 174 articles.
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Although higher levels of total physical activity were significant associated with lower risk of all 5 diseases, the most major gains occurred at lower levels of activity (up to 3000-4000 metabolic equivalent [MET] minutes/week). At higher levels of activity, increases yielded only minimal returns.

Compared with individuals with MET levels below recommendations (less than 600 MET minutes/week), those who were highly active (8000 MET minutes/week or more) had a 14% reduced risk of breast cancer, 21% reduced risk of colon cancer, 28% reduced risk of diabetes, 25% reduced risk of ischemic heart disease, and 26% reduced risk of ischemic stroke.

“People who achieve total physical activity levels several times higher than the current recommended minimum level have a significant reduction in the risk of the 5 diseases studied,” the researchers concluded. “More studies with detailed quantification of total physical activity will help to find more precise relative risk estimates for different levels of activity.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:
Kyu HH, Bachman VF, Alexander LT, et al. Physical activity and risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and ischemic stroke events: systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 [published online August 9, 2016]. BMJ. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i3857.