Heart Disease, Diabetes News 2015: Gentle Exercises, Even Swimming, Not Enough to Avoid Problems, Study Indicates

A new study said doing gentle exercises is not enough to stay off the radar of heart disease and diabetes.

People must work up the sweat and do more than light activities such as household chores, gardening, or playing golf if they want to avoid an early death, according to researchers from James Cook University in Australia.

Even gentle swimming and social tennis did not make the cut as researchers say they are not beneficial unless paired with more strenuous exercise, The Telegraph said.

Researchers instead recommend participating in a vigorous exercise for at least 45 minutes a week, after coming out with a study involving more than 200,000 middle aged people for six years.

Those who did more than 45 minutes of vigorous physical exercise were found to be 13 percent less likely to have died of any cause during that period.

"The benefits of vigorous activity applied to men and women of all ages, and were independent of the total amount of time spent being active," lead author Dr. Klaus Gebel from James Cook University's Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention said.

"The results indicate that whether or not you are obese, and whether or not you have heart disease or diabetes, if you can manage some vigorous activity it could offer significant benefits for longevity."

The results of the research, which was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, showed that there should be more efforts in encouraging vigorous activities in clinical and public health guidelines, said co-author Dr Melody Ding from the University of Sydney's School of Public Health.

The National Health Service recommends that adults exercise moderately for 150 minutes and vigorously for 75 minutes weekly. However, the new study showed that at least 45 minutes of the 150 minutes should have vigorous exercise as well, like jogging, aerobics or competitive tennis.

"The guidelines leave individuals to choose their level of exercise intensity, or a combination of levels, with two minutes of moderate exercise considered the equivalent of one minute of vigorous activity," Dr. Ding said.

"It might not be the simple two-for-one swap that is the basis of the current guidelines," she said. "Our research indicates that encouraging vigorous activities may help to avoid preventable deaths at an earlier age."