Gaby
The advent of activity trackers has let researchers study how short, random bursts of everyday activity affect cancer risk.
Researchers were surprised by the results. Adding just 4-5 minutes a day of higher-intensity activity, split into roughly 1-minute bursts, was associated with an overall 18% reduction in cancer risk — and up to 32% for cancers linked to physical inactivity.
These include cancers whose risk rises in the absence of exercise: kidney, liver, lung, head and neck, esophageal, bladder, breast, endometrial, myeloid leukemia, and myeloma.
Life Without Sports, But With Daily Minimal Activity
The study utilized data from wearable devices tracking the daily activity of over 22,000 people who did not engage in sports. Researchers then monitored the clinical medical records of this group for nearly seven years to observe cancer occurrences.
Researchers found that cancer risk was significantly lower among people who performed 4-5 minutes of vigorous intermittent physical activity (Vilpa) each day than among those who did none. As noted by the Daily Mail, the term “Vilpa” was coined by researchers to describe very short bursts of activity (about one minute each) that people commonly do every day.
Professor Stamatakis says intermittent physical activity applies the principles of high-intensity interval training to everyday life. He adds that adults who do not engage in sports have an increased risk of developing certain types of cancer. Until recently, experts were unable to measure the impact of less structured forms of intense physical activity.
In a sample of 22,398 individuals (average age 62) who didn’t participate in sports during their leisure time and didn’t walk regularly, researchers identified 2,356 new cancer cases over an average follow-up of 6.7 years. Of those, 1,084 cases were linked to a lack of physical activity.
At least 3.5 minutes of periodic daily activity was associated with an 18% reduction in cancer incidence compared with no activity. And 4.5 minutes of short bursts each day was linked to a 32% lower risk of cancers tied to physical inactivity.
