You have to exercise even when you're old to be at risk of death ↓...Risk drops by 30-40% if WHO recommends maintaining high-intensity physical activity

Jul 13, 2025

You have to exercise even when you're old to be at risk of death ↓...Risk drops by 30-40% if WHO recommends maintaining high-intensity physical activity
Image=Pixabay



While it is known that the risk of death in adults who continue to engage in physical activity decreases, research has shown that maintaining medium and high-intensity physical activity recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) can reduce the risk of death from all causes by 30-40%. This is the result of a research team led by Dr. Gregor Mielke of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

For adults, the WHO recommends 15 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, 75 to 150 minutes of high-intensity physical activity, or a combination of the two for health.

The research team measured physical activity at more than two points in time among the papers published in English by April 2024, selected 85 articles that met the research criteria, and analyzed whether various physical activity patterns in adulthood and their cumulative effects were related to changes in the overall risk of death, including death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. The sample size of the paper ranged from 357 to 6,573,000. Fifty-nine papers dealt with long-term physical activity patterns throughout adulthood, 16 dealt with the average benefits of various levels of physical activity, and 11 dealt with the effect of accumulated physical activity on the risk of death.




Integrated data analysis showed that the higher the level of physical activity overall in all papers, the lower the risk of death.

Those who maintained high levels of physical activity had a 30-40% lower risk of death from all causes than those who did not, and those who increased levels of physical activity higher than recommended during the study period had a 20-25% lower risk of death. Participants who transitioned from inactive to active had a 22% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who continued to be inactive, and those who increased their level of physical activity in their leisure time had a 27% lower risk of death.

In addition, in general, the association between high levels of physical activity and reduced risk of death was more pronounced in cardiovascular disease than in cancer. In particular, it was analyzed that those who maintained high activity overall or in their leisure time had 40% and 25% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer than those who continued to be inactive, respectively.




The team scientifically demonstrated that physical activity effectively reduces the risk of death at all ages and at all timesHe stressed that it is very important to increase physical activity in daily life because the health benefits are clear even if you start exercising late.








This article was translated by Naver AI translator.