exercise

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Exercising in Winter

Exercising in winter

Exercising in winter

As the days draw in and temperatures drop, you may be tempted to hang up your exercise gear and hibernate.

Don’t! Stay active throughout autumn and winter to beat those seasonal blues and feel on top of the world.

If you’re short on ideas for getting active, try our popular Couch to 5K running plan and Strength and Flex exercise plan, which are ideal for beginners.

And if you’re not keen on exercising outdoors, check out:

10-minute home exercise routines

Home exercise videos

Gym-free workouts

If you’re looking for something less energetic, these strength, balance, flexibility and sitting exercises are ideal if you want to improve your health, lift your mood and remain independent.

Don’t worry if you’ve not done much for a while, these exercises are gentle, easy to follow and can also be done indoors.

More energy

Regular exercise will make you feel more energetic, which should make it a little easier to get out of your warm bed on cold, dark mornings.

Your body’s defences will also benefit. There is some limited research suggesting that moderate exercise can strengthen the immune system, thereby reducing the risk of coughs and colds.

If the shorter days are affecting your mood, being active can improve your sense of wellbeing. Find out more in Get active for mental wellbeing.

You may be tempted to eat more during the colder months. Exercising will help you manage your weight better and keep your body in shape.

Get tips on eating a healthy balanced diet and taking regular exercise to maintain a healthy body weight.

Warm up

If you’re starting a new exercise regime, don’t overdo it. Slowly build the amount of exercise you do. If you can’t manage 30 minutes in one go, break it up into 10-minute chunks.

Always warm-up for up to 10 minutes before you start. Walk at a brisk pace, or jog to warm your muscles.

Make sure you’re warm if you’re going outside. Wear several layers to keep the heat in. A lot of heat escapes through your head, so consider wearing a hat as well.

Stay safe

If you’re exercising after dark, keep to well-lit areas and wear bright and reflective clothing. Ideally, exercise with a friend, but always tell someone where you’re going.

Avoid listening to music while running outdoors. Not hearing what’s going on around you can make you vulnerable.

If rain or ice is making exercise dangerous, do it another day. The weather might be better tomorrow, but an injury could take weeks to heal.

If you have a cold

Colds are more common in winter, but you don’t necessarily have to stop exercising if you’re feeling under the weather. According to Dr Keith Hopcroft, a GP from Basildon in Essex, use common sense and listen to your body.

“If your symptoms are not severe and you generally feel OK, then you can exercise. If you feel absolutely rotten, then it’s best not to go.”

However, it is important not to exercise if you have a fever. A fever is when your body’s temperature is 38C (100.4F) or above and is rarely a symptom of a cold.

“If you exercise with a fever,” says Dr Hopcroft, “it’ll make you feel worse. In very rare cases, exercising with a fever can lead to the virus affecting your heart, which can be dangerous.”

If you have asthma, take extra care when exercising in winter as cold air can trigger symptoms. Use your inhaler before you exercise and have it with you during your activity.

Something you enjoy

Choose an activity that you enjoy. Now might be the time to try something new that you can do indoors, such as tai chi, yoga, rock climbing or swimming.

Use our directory to find fitness activities and classes near you.

You don’t even have to stop doing outdoor activities.

If you enjoy running, don’t let cold weather put you off. Get tips on running outdoors in winter.

You could take a long walk at the weekend or go for a bike ride. Just wrap up warm and be careful if it’s wet or icy.

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‘Exercise may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease’

Dementia and exercise

Dementia and exercise

“Cut Alzheimer’s risk by walking,” the Daily Mail recommends. This advice is prompted by a statistical modelling study looking at population attributable risks (PARS) – factors known to influence the prevalence of a disease, such as Alzheimer’s, at a population level.

The seven risk factors researchers looked at included diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise, obesity, depression and low educational level. In theory, some cases of Alzheimer’s disease might be prevented by reducing these risk factors.

For example, the study estimated physical inactivity accounted for 21.8% of the risk of developing Alzheimer’s in the UK. Another way of saying this is that if nobody was inactive, the risk of Alzheimer’s in the UK population could reduce by 21.8%.

But this is only a theory that applies to an entire population, not individuals. We cannot say for sure that living a healthier life will definitely prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

One of the biggest risk factors for Alzheimer’s is age, and it is possible age will interact with the seven modifiable factors over different stages of a person’s life. This could create a more complex risk profile than the current study was able to describe.

But a healthy lifestyle does have other benefits – regular exercise can reduce your risk of developing heart disease and some types of cancer.

 

Never too late to learn

Although unproven, the hypothesis that keeping the brain active has a protective effect is relatively plausible.

 

Whatever your age, there are many opportunities to learn new things, ranging from weekly evening classes to something more formal, such as an Open University or University of the Third Age course.

 

A good place to find out more is usually your local library, which should be able to provide information about adult education resources in your area.

Where did the story come from?

The study was led by researchers from the psychology department at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and was funded by an award from the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

It was published in the peer-reviewed journal, The Lancet Neurology.

The UK media’s reporting was generally accurate, with most focusing on the physical activity risk, which was the most important factor for the UK data.

 

What kind of research was this?

This modelling study used existing data on potential risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s disease, including sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, and health-related factors such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

The researchers then predicted the amount of disease that might be prevented if these risk factors were reduced through changes in lifestyle.

While this type of research can provide useful predictions, they are just that – hypothetical predictions.

Similarly, the predictions apply to entire populations of people, such as everyone in UK. This means the study cannot say that living a healthier life will prevent Alzheimer’s for any specific individual, only that it may prevent some cases across the group as a whole.

 

What did the research involve?

The researchers used existing population-based research to identify the main modifiable risk factors that may be associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

They then predicted how many cases of Alzheimer’s disease might be prevented if the risks were reduced across the US, the UK and the rest of the world.

The main analysis was the calculation of the population attributable risk, or PAR. This is the proportion of cases of a disease in a population that is attributable to the risk factor.

A modifiable risk factor, such as smoking, is a risk you can potentially reduce – for example, by stopping smoking. The main modifiable risk factors linked to developing Alzheimer’s disease were:

diabetes – adult prevalence of diagnosed diabetes between the ages of 20 and 79

midlife high blood pressure – adult midlife prevalence of hypertension between the ages of 35 and 64

midlife obesity – adult midlife prevalence of body mass index greater than 30 between the ages of 35 and 64

physical inactivity – proportion of adults who do not do either 20 minutes of vigorous activity on three or more days, or 30 minutes of moderate activity on five or more days per week

depression – lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorder using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or International Classification of Diseases criteria

smoking – the proportion of adult smokers

low educational level – the proportion of adults with an International Standard Classification of Education level of two or less (pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education)

The researchers made projections for the number of cases of Alzheimer’s disease up to the year 2050. They then modelled risk reductions of 10% and 20% for each decade from now until 2050 to see how many disease cases could be prevented.

They did this for each risk factor both individually (to see which ones had the biggest impact) and combined.

The predictions took account of associations between risk factors – for example, that a person who is obese is more likely to have high blood pressure.

 

What were the basic results?

The study calculated PAR for the world, the US and the UK. We focus on the UK results below.

The largest PAR for an individual risk factor in the UK was for physical inactivity (PAR 21.8% 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.1% to 37.7%).

This meant that 21.8% of the Alzheimer’s cases were predicted to be attributable to physical inactivity, which could potentially be prevented if people were more active.

The next highest PAR was for low educational level (PAR 12.2% 95% CI, 7.6% to 16.9%), followed by smoking (10.6%, 95% CI, 2.9% to 19.4%).

Diabetes, midlife hypertension, midlife obesity and depression gave PARs in the range of 1.9% to 8.3%.

Combining the seven risk factors together gave a UK PAR of 30.0% (95% CI, 14.3% to 44.4%).

This means the researchers predicted around 30.0% of the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in the UK was attributable to a combination of these seven modifiable risk factors.

This estimate adjusted for associations between risk factors, such as obesity and diabetes.

 

How did the researchers interpret the results?

The researchers concluded that, “After accounting for non-independence between risk factors, around a third of Alzheimer’s diseases cases worldwide [and in the UK] might be attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors.

“Alzheimer’s disease incidence might be reduced through improved access to education and use of effective methods targeted at reducing the prevalence of vascular risk factors [for example, physical inactivity, smoking, midlife hypertension, midlife obesity and diabetes] and depression.”

 

Conclusion

This study suggests around a third of the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease might be caused by a combination of seven lifestyle-related risk factors, including low educational level, physical inactivity and smoking. In theory, by reducing these risk factors some cases of Alzheimer’s disease might be prevented.

Predictive studies such as this one are only as good as the assumptions and data used in the calculations. As the researchers themselves acknowledge, despite their best efforts to the contrary, this still involves “substantial uncertainty”. Consequently, there may be some variation in the estimates of the PARs presented because of potential inaccuracies or natural variations in prevalence data.

The strength of the association between the risk factor and the disease may also vary in different groups. This accuracy could be tested by repeating the research using a range of different data sources and assumptions.

The predictions this study makes apply to entire populations of people, such as everyone in the UK. It therefore cannot say that living a healthier life will definitely prevent Alzheimer’s for any specific individual, only that it may reduce the risk and prevent some cases across the group as a whole.

If everyone in the UK was physically active (defined in this study as 20 minutes of vigorous activity on three or more days a week, or 30 minutes of moderate activity on five or more days a week) the study predicts around 20% of the risk of developing Alzheimer’s would be cut, which would reduce the number of people developing the disease overall.

But because we are modelling the effect in large groups, it is not possible to pinpoint which people would get Alzheimer’s and which would not. Other types of test and analysis would need to be developed to be able to predict this.

These predictions assume that all the risk factors tested directly cause or contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers acknowledge this is open to debate in some areas. This means the risk accounted for by these factors could potentially be lower than estimated in this study.

One of the biggest risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease is age, and it is likely age will interact with the seven modifiable factors over different stages of a person’s life, creating a more complex risk profile than this study was able to describe.

For example, it is unlikely that someone who decides to quit smoking and start exercising regularly at 20 would have the same risk reduction as someone deciding the same thing at 70.

Nonetheless, there are a host of other good reasons for leading a healthy lifestyle, no matter what your age. Keeping active once you reach retirement age can also help you stay more energetic, healthy and independent as you get older.

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Some great exercise tips for people with chronic pain for invisible i

Exercise Routine for Chronic Pain

Exercise Routine for Chronic Pain

Exercise Routine for Chronic Pain

Some great exercise tips for people with chronic pain for invisible i

For other ideas check out our previous blog post here.

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“Vacuuming and scrubbing the floor are enough exercise to protect the heart and extend life,” say Newspaper

Housework

Housework

“Vacuuming and scrubbing the floor are enough exercise to protect the heart and extend life,” reports The Telegraph, with other media sources reporting a similar finding – that physical activity in our everyday lives is just as good as going to the gym.

This follows a large international study published in The Lancet that included more than 130,000 people from 17 countries.

The researchers wanted to compare physical activity and heart disease levels in countries ranging from low income to high income.

There’s firm evidence that regular physical activity reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other long-term diseases. However, most evidence has come from high-income countries where people often exercise for leisure – for example, going to the gym or playing sport.

In lower-income countries, it’s possible people are generally less likely to do recreational exercise but more likely to have physically active lifestyles involving manual work. The aim was to see if this sort of day-to-day activity could be just as beneficial as any other type of exercise.

The main finding was that it made no difference. Physical activity of any type – whether it was walking or doing household chores – was clearly linked with a lower risk of death or heart disease and stroke.

The study supports current government recommendations to do at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week. People who achieved this had about a 20-30% reduced risk of death, heart disease or stroke compared to those who didn’t.

Where did the story come from?

The study was carried out by researchers from Simon Fraser University and Hamilton Health Sciences & McMaster University, both in Canada, and from the University of Edinburgh, among other international institutions.

Funding was provided by a number of organisations including the Population Health Research Institute, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, as well as pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Servier, GSK, Novartis and King Pharma.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet, and is free to read online.

Generally, the media accurately reported the finding that the more exercise you do – regardless of the type – the better. However, headlines tended to emphasize household and other daily chores rather than recreational activities, which was slightly misleading. Housework wasn’t found to be any better than other forms of activity recorded.

What kind of research was this?

This was an international prospective cohort study that looked at the relationship between physical activity and cardiovascular disease and mortality.

The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiologic (PURE) study included 17 countries around the world with different income levels to see if the benefits of exercise on the heart depended on the type of physical activity done.

What did the research involve?

The PURE study included three high-income countries (Canada, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates), seven upper-middle-income countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Poland, Turkey, Malaysia and South Africa), three lower-middle-income countries (China, Colombia and Iran), and four low income countries (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Zimbabwe).

Within the countries, different urban and rural communities were selected to represent geographical diversity. Adults aged 35 to 70 from selected households were invited to take part, mostly between 2005 and 2010.

Participants answered questions on sociodemographics, medical health and lifestyle. They also completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), which asked them to record any activity they did – whether non-recreational (occupational, transportation, housework) or recreational.

Total physical activity was categorised as:

Low physical activity – less than 600 metabolic equivalents (MET) x minutes per week, which equates to less than 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week.

Moderate physical activity – 600-3,000 MET × minutes per week, which equals 150-750 minutes of moderate activity a week.

High physical activity – more than 3,000 MET × minutes per week, equal to more than 750 minutes of moderate activity per week.

The main outcomes the researchers looked at were death from cardiovascular disease and having a heart attack, stroke or heart failure. In high-income countries, this information was taken from registries, but in middle- and low-income countries researchers sometimes had to rely on family or friends of participants to provide information on probable cause of illness or death.

The analyses included 130,843 people who completed the IPAQ. Anyone who had CVD at the start of the study was excluded. Researchers looked at the relationship between activity and cardiovascular disease or heart-related deaths, adjusting the data to take into account factors that may have influenced results, such as age, sex, BMI and waist-hip ratio, smoking, high blood pressure, and diabetes. The participants were followed up over an average period of 6.9 years.

What were the basic results?

Overall, the total amount of physical activity and recreational activity decreased from high-income to low-income countries. Levels of non-recreational activity were similar across all countries.

Rates of deaths, heart attacks and stroke also significantly decreased with increasing levels of physical activity. The overall rates of mortality or major cardiovascular disease events (stroke, heart attack or heart failure) were 9.46 per 1,000 people per year in the low-activity group, which reduced to 7.14 in the moderate-activity group, and to 6.60 per 1,000 per year in the high physical activity group.

People who met current physical activity recommendations – at least 150 minutes of moderate activity each week (the moderate to high activity groups) – had a 22% lower risk of death or risk of a major cardiovascular event compared with those who with low physical activity levels (hazard ratio [HR] 0.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.74 to 0.83). Risk of death was 28% reduced (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.77) and risk of heart attacks or strokes was 20% reduced (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.86).

The beneficial effect of exercise (and the increased risk of heart-related deaths from lower levels of physical activity) was seen across all countries.

How did the researchers interpret the results?

The researchers concluded: “Higher recreational and non-recreational physical activity was associated with a lower risk of mortality and CVD events in individuals from low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries. Increasing physical activity is a simple, widely applicable, low cost global strategy that could reduce deaths and CVD in middle age.”

Conclusion

This study shows that all physical activity, in any form, is good for us. This includes both recreational and non-recreational activities.

Don’t be misled by some of the media: non-recreational activities like housework are not “better” than recreational activities like playing sports or going to the gym.

The fact that reduced risk was seen with non-recreational activity across all countries, but only seen with recreational activity in high-income countries was probably just because fewer people in lower-income countries play sports or go to the gym.

The researchers estimate that 8% of all deaths and 4.6% of all cardiovascular disease events in the population could be prevented if everyone met the current physical activity recommendations: doing at least 150 minutes of moderate activity each week.

The study had a few important limitations:

Participants may have inaccurately reported the amount and type of activity.

Disease outcomes and cause of death may be inaccurate – particularly in lower-income countries where this information could not be collected as reliably through registries and medical records. And people with pre-existing disease may not have been reliably excluded.

The researchers tried to adjust for confounding factors that may influence the results, but weren’t able to cover them all – notably, they failed to adjust for diet.

Participants were from a range of countries worldwide, but this may not have been entirely representative. For example, in some lower-income countries it may have been harder to contact households. Also, the main age group represented was middle-aged adults.

These limitations mean the study results are only estimates and cannot be taken as hard figures. Nevertheless, this is a large, good-quality study published in a highly respected medical journal, and the findings reinforce current government recommendations for physical activity.

You should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, such as brisk walking or cycling and strength exercises on two or more days a week.

However, if you feel this advice might be unachievable to start with, aiming for 10 minutes moderate exercise a day, such as brisk walking, is a good start. Any type of exercise is likely to be good and a gym membership isn’t necessary.

Read more about how to get and stay fit.

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What are the best kinds of exercise for people during their busy day?

Pete Cohen

Pete Cohen

What are the best kinds of exercise for people during their busy day? Pete Cohen shares his secrets for a healthier lifestyle! He tells us about some recent research and introduces us to National Fitness Day.