A new study is saying 30 minutes a day for exercise recommended by the American Heart Association just isn’t enough.
The analysis, published Monday in the journal “Circulation,” reviewed 12 studies involving 370,460 men and women of varying physical activity levels that took place over a period of approximately 15 years.
Researchers say that those who followed the 30 minutes per day guidelines only had “modest reductions” in their heart failure risk compared to the people who didn’t. However, those who exercised twice or even four times as often had a “substantial risk reduction.”
“Walking 30 minutes a day as recommended in the U.S. physical activity guidelines may not be good enough — significantly more physical activity may be necessary to reduce the risk of heart failure,” said senior study author Dr. Jarett Berry. “The findings from the present study suggest that higher levels of physical activity may help combat this growing burden of heart failure.”
Ambarish Pandey, one of the study authors, said future exercise guidelines should consider looking at their study results and possibly offer more efficient recommendations about the importance of more exercise for heart failure prevention.
