Experts say washing up, cooking and gardening ‘are enough to slash heart disease risk’

Just being “up and about” doing the washing up, cooking and gardening is enough to slash the risk of heart disease and prevent an early death, according to a new study.

Experts found that being on your feet doing daily activities could have a dramatic effect on improving heart health, and even things like taking a shower count.

Compared with women doing less than two hours of daily movement, those doing at least four hours had a 43% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, 43% lower risk of coronary heart disease, 30% lower risk of stroke, and a 62% lower chance of dying from heart disease.

The findings, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (Jama), included data on the activity levels of 5,416 American women aged 63 to 97 who did not have heart disease at the start of the study.

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University of California San Diego researchers studied the impact of daily life movement on the risk of cardiovascular disease, including those activities occurring when standing and walking, such as getting dressed, washing up, self-care, housework, preparing meals and gardening.

Lead author on the paper Dr Steve Nguyen said: “The study demonstrates that all movement counts towards disease prevention.

“Spending more time in daily life movement, which includes a wide range of activities we all do while on our feet and out of our chairs, resulted in a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.”

Last year, official figures revealed that coronary heart disease was the country’s number one killer - and has also claimed the most lives since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Scotland has a high prevalence of the risk factors associated with heart disease, such as smoking, poor diet and physical inactivity. Overall, it is estimated that around 6.7% of men and 4.2% of women are living with coronary heart disease.

In the new study, experts looked at how people spent their waking time, including sitting, sitting in a vehicle, standing still, daily life movement, and walking or running.

Participants wore a research-grade accelerometer for up to seven days to get accurate measures of how much time they spent moving.

READ MORE: Covid Scotland: Concern over impact of pandemic amid rise in heart disease and stroke deaths

During the course of the study, 616 women were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, 268 with coronary heart disease, 253 had a stroke, and 331 died of cardiovascular disease.

But the researchers found that those women who were generally up and about and active, including doing mundane activities, had lower risks.

Heart disease accounted for 10.6 per cent or 9,513 deaths overall, compared to 10.2 per cent or 9,131 for coronavirus.

Researcher Dr Andrea LaCroix said: “Much of the movement engaged in by older adults is associated with daily life tasks, but it may not be considered physical activity.

“Understanding the benefits of daily life movement and adding this to physical activity guidelines may encourage more movement.”

It comes after a separate study published earlier this month found that people can ward off severe heart disease by performing at least 20 minutes of exercise a day in later life.

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