A brisk daily walk of just 20 minutes could add years to your life, scientists said last night.

In a stark warning against couch-potato lifestyles, they said lack of exercise killed twice as many people as obesity.

The Cambridge University study of 334,000 people found that even a modest amount of activity prolonged life. And the least fit had the most to gain.

Twenty minutes of walking a day – or its equivalent – would cut their risk of premature death by almost a third.


The researchers could not say how much extra life could be gained through using exercise in this way to move from the ‘inactive’ to the ‘moderately inactive’ part of the population.

But even the obese could expect a 16 per cent reduced risk of dying early. Those of healthy weight could profit by 30 per cent.

Ulf Ekelund, who led the study, said: ‘This is a simple message: just a small amount of physical activity each day could have substantial health benefits for people who are physically inactive.

‘Although we found just 20 minutes would make a difference, we should really be looking to do more than this – physical activity has many proven health benefits and should be an important part of our daily life.’

The researchers estimated that 337,000 of 9.2million recorded deaths of European men and women were attributable to obesity. But twice this number – around 676,000 deaths – could be blamed on inactivity.







Source: Dailymail.co.uk