Importance of weekly exercise

Only about 47% of Americans meet at least one of the recommended levels of weekly physical activity — 150 minutes of moderate exercise and two days of muscle strengthening per week — according to a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Around 22% to 29% meet both recommendations.

One reason is that 80% of jobs require mostly sedentary activities. Physically demanding jobs account for less than 20% of employment — down from nearly 50% of jobs in 1960.

What can you do to shake off the health hazards, including heart disease, diabetes and obesity, that are associated with a sedentary job? A new study in JAMA Network Open shows that every little bit of forward motion helps.

The researchers looked at 481,688 folks for around 13 years. They found that anyone who had a mostly sitdown job had a 34% higher risk of cardiovascular disease and a 16% higher risk of dying from any cause compared to folks who mostly were standing while working.

The good news is that they also found that you can start small to reverse the effects of being sedentary. When folks who sit a lot at work and get only 15 to 29 minutes of leisure time physical activity daily add in just 15 minutes a day of exercise, they upgrade their health; sedentary folks getting 0-15 minutes of leisure time activity daily need to add 30 minutes.

So, to begin to move more every day, discover programs offering vigorous exercise, interval walking, and strength training at LomgevityPlaybook.com and extensive articles on fitness at iherb.com/ blog/fitness.

Dr. Mike Roizen is the founder of www.longevityplaybook. com, and Dr. Mehmet Oz is global advisor to www.iHerb. com, the world’s leading online health store. Roizen and Oz are chief wellness officer emeritus at Cleveland Clinic and professor emeritus at Columbia University, respectively.