Start dusting ... housework helps you to live longer

JUST half an hour of housework a day can cut your risk of premature death by over a quarter, a major study has found.

Doing the chores, walking or any other regular activity that raises the heart rate for 30 minutes could help prevent one in 12 of all deaths.

It could also prevent one in 20 cases of heart disease, the research shows.

The study, the largest of its kind, looked at more than 130,000 people in 17 countries. It found the more active they were, the lower their risk of early death.

Benefits could be gained from any type of regular physical activity – housework, gardening, walking to work or having an active job, as well as sport and gym visits. Experts said the findings, published in The Lancet, showed exercise is ‘the best medicine at our disposal’.

Researchers led by a team from McMaster University in Canada followed people aged 35 to 70 from high, middle and low income countries including Canada, Brazil, China and Pakistan. They provided detailed information about their health and activity levels and were checked for signs of heart disease.

Over a seven- year follow- up period, 5,334 died, of whom 1,294 died from heart disease. Another 1,987 had a heart attack, 2,086 a stroke and 386 heart failure.

Researchers found that those who exercised for 30 minutes, five days a week had a 28 per cent lower death rate and 20 per cent lower risk of heart disease than those who were less active.

This was regardless of country, socioeconomic background or type of physical activity. It suggests that if everyone did 30 minutes of physical activity a day, 8 per cent of deaths and 4.6 per cent of heart disease cases could be prevented.

If everyone did 2.5 hours of physical activity a day, 13 per cent of deaths and 9.5 per cent of heart disease cases could be stopped.

Around a fifth of those in the study did not meet World Health Organisation guidelines of 150 minutes’ exercise a week. But nearly two in five did 150 minutes each day. The researchers recommend trying to build physical activity into a daily lifestyle, such as commuting on foot or by bicycle and staying active at work.

Lead author Dr Scott Lear said: ‘Going to the gym is great, but we only have so much time we can spend there. If we can walk to work, or at lunchtime, that will help too.’

Heart disease kills one in four Britons and more than 7million people in the UK currently suffer from it. Professor Metin Avkiran, of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘Weaving physical activity into our daily routines has never been more important, not only to improve our physical health but also overall wellbeing.’

Dr James Rudd, of Cambridge University, said: ‘Exercise truly is the best medicine at our disposal for reducing the odds of an early death.’ Professor John Martin, of University College London, said governments should do more to promote walking as a way of preventing heart disease. ‘Walking is easy and cheap,’ he said.