30 MINUTES, THAT’S ALL YOU NEED !

Sleeping, ignoring your BMI, making friends— it was going so well, wasn’t it? Unfortunately there is some hard work involved in living longer. Not much, though. Research published in 2008 b y the Mayo Clinic found that only half an hour ’s light exercise— such as gardening or brisk w alking, can dramatically help in lowering blood pressure, improving cholesterol, managing Type 2 diabetes, and preventing cancer.

There was, of course, also the ne ws that office workers sitting f or at l east eight hours a day could increase their risk of a pr emature death by up t o 60 per cent. The stud y, conducted by the Lancet, suggested that just one hour of ex ercise a day could combat the scourge of the sed entary lifestyle— which they rate as posing as gr eat a threat as smoking.