15 minutes of exercise a day increases life span—Study

Just 15 minutes of moderate exercise can keep you away from cancer and increase your life span, reveals a study.

For all those couch potatoes out there, there is good news. A study published in the medical journal 'The Lancet' stated that only 15 minutes of moderate exercise a day may add three years to your life, and also reduces your chances of dying due to cancer.

Just exercise for 15 minutes daily
Most of us find it very difficult to follow the standard guidelines of exercising 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

With this lower recommended dose, experts hope and believe that more and more inactive people will be encouraged to dump the couch and put on their walking shoes.

Researchers led by Chi Pang Wen of Taiwan found that fifteen minutes of moderate exercising for instance, brisk walking, easy jogging and biking can benefit anyone.

The study
The study tracked about 416,000 people over a period of 13 years. The participants belonged to all age groups above 20.

The health records and physical activity of all these participants were analyzed each year.

All of them self reported their weekly exercise regime, and were categorized into five groups: inactive, low, medium, high, or very high rate of activity.

It was found that 15 minutes of moderate exercise a day benefits people of both sexes, from all age groups, even those with cardiovascular ailments.

Daily exercise regime was also linked to lower risk of cancer, and seemed to reduce cancer related deaths.

The benefits
“The benefits are enormous. The 30- minute a day for five days or more days a week has been the golden rule for the last 15 years, but now we found even half that amount could be very beneficial,” said Wen.

A majority of people around the world fall in the inactive category. This 15- minute workout might just be the incentive they need.

“As we all feel, finding a slot of 15 minutes is much easier than finding a 30 minute slot in most days of the week," added Wen.

Wen has not encouraged those who follow the 30-minute exercise schedule every day, to reduce their exercise period.

According to experts, the 30 minutes, five times a week advice still stands, but those 15 minutes of workouts a day would definitely help those inactive people a lot of good.