Short bursts of physical activity cut women’s risk of heart attack

A dash of vigorous activity a day could keep the heart troubles away.

Women who included short bursts of intense physical activity in their daily routines saw their risk of major cardiovascular problems drop 45 percent compared with women who did none, scientists reported December 3 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

And those short bursts of activity can be really short, says Emmanuel Stamatakis, a physical activity epidemiologist at the University of Sydney — just 20 to 30 seconds of intense physical exertion sprinkled multiple times throughout the day. In his team’s study, a few minutes total of these bursts was enough to see hefty heart benefits.

It’s not a new idea for Stamatakis, who has been working in the field for decades. He’s previously shown that short bouts of vigorous activity cut the risk of death from any cause by nearly 40 percent (SN: 12/8/22). In the new study, he wanted to look at specific cardiovascular problems, like heart attack, heart failure and stroke, as well as differences between men and women.

The team analyzed data from more than 22,000 people ages 40 to 69 who reported not doing any exercise in their free time. They wore a movement tracking device for one week and researchers noted their health issues over the next eight years, on average.

Of 969 women who didn’t do any bouts of vigorous physical activity, 52 later experienced a major cardiovascular problem. But women who did about 3.4 minutes total of this activity had their risk cut nearly in half. Even just one to two minutes total of daily bursts lowered women’s risk of heart attack by 33 percent, Stamatakis and his colleagues found.

Researchers saw smaller heart benefits in men. It’s possible that men’s average fitness levels were higher, so a small increase in daily activity might have less of an effect, Stamatakis says.

But overall, he says, the take-home message is simple: It’s important to build habits that inject a bit of heart-pounding, breath-stealing exertion into our day-to-day lives. That can look like parking a little farther from the grocery story, taking the stairs or even chasing your dog around the park (SN: 1/2/24). The key is to “incorporate as many bursts here and there as possible,” Stamatakis says.