Doing This for 5 Minutes a Day Can Protect Your Heart
Updated December 16, 2014.
Written or reviewed by a board-certified physician. See About.com's Medical Review Board.
A study was published in July, 2014 reporting that people who ran 5 - 10 minutes a day - even if they ran very slowly - were significantly less likely to die from heart disease (or from other causes) than people who did not run at all. In fact, the reduction in mortality among people who ran briefly and slowly (but regularly) was the same as for people who ran a lot more, and a lot faster. Immediately after the study’s publication, newspaper headlines and TV reports across the country loudly proclaimed that “A Little Bit of Running Can Save Your Heart and Your Life.”
- Read about exercise and the heart.
Can This Really Be True?
Let’s have a look at the study and see.
This report came from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study (ACLS), a long-term study conducted by the Cooper Institute for Aerobics in Dallas. The ACLS enrolled over 55,000 individuals from all age groups, and followed them for 15 years. The ACLS has published numerous papers comparing lifestyle habits to eventual outcomes. As the name of the Cooper Institute for Aerobics implies, the chief interest of the investigators has been to study the effects of exercise and fitness on clinical outcomes.
In the report from July, 2014, the investigators were able to correlate a running habit - even a minimal running habit - with significantly improved outcomes. In fact, subjects who ran just 5 - 10 minutes per day (including those who ran less than 6 miles per week, or slower than 10 minutes per mile) had the same reduction in mortality as more dedicated runners who ran much faster and who averaged over 20 miles of running per week.
And the reduction in mortality was substantial. Over 15 years, the risk of death from cardiac causes was 45% lower, and the risk of death from any cause was 30% lower, than for non-runners. This benefit accrued to all runners, even the ones who ran quite slowly, and only for 5 - 10 minutes per day.
So, the study suggests, if you can’t exercise according to current guidelines (at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity at least 5 days a week), you can still gain very substantial benefit if you’ll just run for 5 or 10 minutes a day.
How Is This Even Possible?
A tremendous amount of data has accumulated showing that regular exercise is extremely important to cardiac health, and to health in general.
Most of that data has been compiled by comparing the time people spend exercising to their eventual outcomes, and in most cases the measured exercise consisted of any type of moderate activity (typically, walking). The Cooper Institute was uniquely situated, by virtue of the type of person enrolled in the ACLS (see the next section), to evaluate a substantial number of people who run regularly, but only a little bit. So this is the only study available that was even able to ask the question - and then answer it - as to what happens when a person exercises vigorously for a few minutes a day.
Regular exercise places useful stress on the cardiovascular system that, over time, improves the function of the heart and the blood vessels, by improving blood lipid levels, reducing the resting blood pressure and heart rate, and improving carbohydrate metabolism and neurohormonal activity. While these benefits are obtainable with moderate, sustained exertion (such as walking briskly for 30 minutes a day), it is entirely possible - and the ACLS study suggests it is true - that just a few minutes of somewhat more vigorous exercise may be able to induce enough of this useful cardiovascular stress to achieve the same result.
What Are the Limitations of This Study?
There are several limitatations. As with any epidemiological study (that is, a study that examines outcomes in a large population of individuals), we cannot draw any cause-and-effect conclusions from this one. That is, while the study showed convincingly that minimal running was associated with improved mortality in the enrolled population, it does not (and cannot) prove that running caused the improved mortality.
Also, the population enrolled at the Cooper Institute was hardly representative of all Americans. Up to 95% of the people enrolled in the ACLS were white, and 80% were college gradutates. And the very fact they agreed to be enrolled in a study run by the Cooper Institute suggests that, on average, these individuals may have been more likely than the typical American to pay attention to their health habits. Indeed, it turns out that ACLS enrollees were less likely to be smokers, and were more fit, than the population in general. And even among these “healthier than average” enrollees, those who were sufficiently motivated to run regularly (even if only for a few minutes and at a slow pace) may have been more likely to attempt a healthier lifestyle in general than non-running enrollees. The investigators took steps to adjust for such confounding variables in their study, but no such statistical adjustments can ever be perfect.
Still, the stark difference in mortality between runners (even very slow runners) and non-runners in the ACLS is very impressive, and is difficult to dismiss out of hand. And as we consider our options in reducing our own cardiovascular risk, we have little to lose by accepting these results as likely representing the truth.
The Bottom Line
We know from numerous studies in the medical literature that getting enough exercise - and staying fit - is an extremely important factor in living a long, healthy life. The Surgeon General, the CDC, and the National Institutes of Health all agree that we each should try to get at least 30 minutes a day of “modest activity.” (Modest activity is defined as the equivalent of walking briskly, that is, at 3 - 4 miles per hour.)
The report from the ACLS suggests that we can get the same benefit in a substantially shorter period of time, if we just pick up the pace a bit. If we shift from a brisk walk to a slow run (that is, increase our pace to 5 or 6 miles per hour), it is entirely possible that 5 - 10 minutes of exercise would suffice. Since “lack of time” is the most frequent excuse doctors hear from their patients for not following exercise guidelines, this new study should give us a lot to think about. Almost anyone can find a spare 5-10 minutes in their day.
In fact, if we simply jog to our parked car or to the bus stop instead of walk, we can get in our lifesaving exercise - and at the same time we can even save ourselves a few minutes.
- Read about exercise recommendations for specific heart conditions.
- Read about exercise after a heart attack.
Sources:
Lee DC, Pate RR, Lavie JR, et al. Leisure-time running reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk. J Am Coll Cardiol 2014; DOI: 10.1016./j.jacc.2014.04.058.
Wen CP, Wai JP, Tsai MK, Chen CH. Minimal amount of exercise to prolong life. J Am Coll Cardiol 2014; DOI: 10.1016./j.jacc.2014.05.026.
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