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It’s time to add to your list of reasons to exercise: Staying active could help prevent the risk of death from flu and pneumonia, according to new research.
Meeting physical activity guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity reduces the risk of dying from influenza and pneumonia by 48%, according to a study published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic physical activity and two or more days of moderate muscle-strengthening activities per week, according to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The study was based on survey data of more than 570,000 people from the US National Health Interview Survey between 1998 and 2018. People were asked about their physical activity habits and categorized into groups based on how well they met the recommended amount of exercise. , according to the study.
On average, respondents were followed for nine years after the initial survey. There were 1,516 deaths from the flu or pneumonia in that time.
Meeting both recommendations for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity cut the risk associated with death from flu or pneumonia by nearly half, but meeting only the aerobic activity goal was associated with a 36% lower risk, according to the study.
Both influenza and pneumonia are among the leading causes of death in the United States and worldwide, so the results are significant, said study lead author Dr. Bryant Webber, an epidemiologist with the Division of Nutrition, Fitness, and Nutrition from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Activity and Obesity.
“Readers can appreciate the importance of vaccination against influenza and pneumococcus. This study could encourage them to think that physical activity may be another powerful tool to protect against death from influenza and pneumonia,” he said.
The results make sense given existing knowledge, and the benefits may extend to other conditions, said Dr. Robert Sallis, director of the sports medicine fellowship at Kaiser Permanente Fontana. Medical Center and Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine in California. He was not involved in the study.
“This study is also consistent with several studies showing that regular exercise drastically reduced the risk of death related to COVID-19 in a similar way,” Sallis said in an email.
But even if you can’t reach the recommended amount, some activity may still provide more protection than none, according to the study.
“We also found that any level of aerobic physical activity, even amounts below the recommended level, reduced the risk of death from influenza and pneumonia, compared with no aerobic activity,” Webber said.
getting 10 149 minutes a week of aerobic physical activity was associated with a 21% lower risk of death from flu and pneumonia, the study showed.
“Our general advice to everyone, regardless of age or perceived fitness level, is to ‘move more and sit less,’” Webber said in an email. “Readers who do not engage in any physical activity should be encouraged that doing something is better than nothing.”
That said, no additional benefit was seen for people who got more than 600 minutes a week of aerobic activity, the study showed.
And in the case of muscle strengthening, there is excess, the study showed.
Meeting the goal of two or more sessions significantly reduced the risk of mortality, but seven or more sessions was associated with a 41% increased risk of death from flu or pneumonia, the study showed.
However, this was an observational study, the researchers noted, which means the study cannot make claims about what causes or prevents deaths, only what factors were associated with a level of risk.
The increased risk could be related to a variety of factors, including the cardiovascular impacts of frequent muscle-strengthening activity or inaccurate survey responses, according to the study.
Although there are design limitations, researchers often rely on these studies when it’s impossible to randomly assign people to different lifestyles, Sallis said.
Aerobic activity, or cardio as it’s often called, doesn’t have to mean going to the gym regularly, according to the study. This type of movement is anything that activates your heart rate and sweat glands, such as brisk walking, swimming, bicycling, running, or climbing stairs.
Exercises like lifting weights, squats, lunges or even heavy gardening can count as muscle-strengthening activity, the study added.
A mega-study published in December 2021 showed that the best exercise programs include planning when you exercise, receiving reminders, offering incentives, and discouraging missing more than one workout in a row.
“If people are hoping to increase their physical activity or change their health behaviors, there are very low-cost behavioral insights that can be incorporated into programs to help them achieve greater success,” said study lead author Katy Milkman, M.D. James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of “How to change: the science of getting from where you are to where you want to be.”
You can start small, said Dana Santas, a CNN fitness contributor and mind-body coach for professional athletes, in a CNN article from 2022.
“Getting ten minutes of exercise every day is much easier than people think. Consider how quickly ten minutes go by when you’re mindlessly browsing social media or watching your favorite TV show,” Santas said in an email. “It’s not a huge investment of time, but it can provide great health benefits.”
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