Pottering in garden can cut risk of an early death by 20%

THERE’S nothing like pottering around in the garden to get away from life’s stresses and strains.

But it turns out that tending the plants is also the perfect way to exercise – and can lower your risk of an early death.

A study suggests that as little as ten minutes of moderate exercise a week is enough to cut the risk of mortality in middle and old age.

It comes as Public Health England warns the UK is in the midst of an ‘inactivity epidemic’ – with 39 per cent of adults failing to meet the NHS’s target of 150 minutes of physical activity a week.

The study, which tracked 88,000 Americans aged 40 to 85 for an average of nine years, found those who did between ten and 60 minutes of activity a week – including gardening, walking and dancing – were 18 per cent less likely to die during the study period than those who did no exercise at all.

The authors, writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, said those who hit the 150-minute guideline were 31 per cent less likely to die than those who were sedentary. Meanwhile those who clocked up ten times this amount – 1,500 minutes or 25 hours a week – saw their mortality risk drop by 46 per cent.

Now the researchers, from the University of Texas and Shandong University in China, have urged global health authorities to consider lowering their minimum exercise threshold – fearing daunting targets are putting many off.

‘We found the beneficial association between leisure time, activity and mortality starts at a low dose,’ they said. ‘Promoting physical activity of any intensity and amount is an important approach to reducing mortality risk.’

It supports a 2016 report by the King’s Fund health think-tank, which called on the NHS to set up more gardening schemes and ‘take advantage’ of Britain’s ‘love affair with gardening’.

While a 30-minute jog uses up 240 calories, the Royal Horticultural Society calculated half an hour of digging can burn 150 and pushing a lawn mower 165.