Already eight minutes a day reduce risks for diabetes and heart disease

Just a few minutes of exercise per day lower risk of heart disease and diabetes

If you move a little, you have a higher risk of getting fat - it can be dangerous. Being overweight is a major health risk, but even a minimum level of physical activity can mitigate, and even prevent, the worst effects of obesity. According to experts, just a few minutes of walking a day significantly reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Significant health risk

The fact that severe obesity represents a significant health risk has been scientifically confirmed in numerous studies in recent years. Increased body weight, among other things, is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack, hypertension or coronary heart disease and many other health problems. Often, physical inactivity is a cause of obesity. Physicians now report that even a minimum level of physical activity can mitigate the worst side effects of obesity and even prevent it in the best case.

If you take a quick walk every day for seven to eight minutes, your risk of heart disease and diabetes is already reduced by 20 percent. (Image: upixa / fotolia.com)

Healthy by going for a walk

The fact that regular exercise can help against diabetes and cardiovascular disease has been proven in numerous scientific studies.

But even moderate regular exercise can help.

"We know from numerous studies that even a minimum level of physical activity can mitigate the worst side effects of obesity and, in the best case, even prevent it," reported Prof. Dr. med. Martin Halle (Munich) at the 84th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Cardiology (DGK) in Mannheim.

"Anyone who walks seven to eight minutes a day will reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes by as much as 20 percent," the expert says.

Go fast and daily

However, this minimal program should really be carried out quickly, ie with a significant additional burden on the heart, because only then the release of risk-minimizing hormones in the muscles is activated.

On the other hand, this program should actually be completed daily. Anyone who achieves this can count on a significantly improved muscle metabolism, an increased elasticity of the vessels and a renewed increase in diastolic heart function after just six to eight weeks.

"All in all, the effects are comparable to those that can be achieved with weight loss of 20 kilograms continuously distributed over two years," said Prof. Halle.

Advice and rules for a healthy lifestyle

"I'm generally convinced that most of the advice and rules for a healthy lifestyle go by the realities of our patients' lives," said the physician.

"The effect is well-known: because jogging for 30 minutes three times a week is impractical for most people, most of them ultimately let it all," says Prof. Halle.

That exercise units have to last at least 30 minutes, is in most fitness programs and prevention instructions as an iron rule.

Prof. Halle: "It is high time to clear up with this common misconception. We are currently working on two major studies that will show, among other things, that significant improvements in cardiovascular health can be achieved in significantly shorter units. "

Being overweight damages the vessels

The fact that overweight can be life-threatening depends on the energy circulation and the interaction of muscles, liver and fat cells in our body.

The basic principle is as banal as we know: if we give the organism more energy than we consume, the excess calories accumulate in the fatty tissue and excess sugar and fats in the liver.

This is associated with a certain risk: The excess of body mass burdened the joints as well as the cardiovascular system and the congested liver is likely to favor a diabetes with high probability.

In addition, another key factor for our health is attacked: the vessels are centrally responsible for the good or bad supply of all functions and organs in the body.

If the fatty tissue is overused, there develop inflammatory substances that lead to vascular changes and further increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

The consequences range from reduced exercise capacity to erectile dysfunctions to stiffening of the heart muscle, which in the worst case can lead to cardiac insufficiency (heart failure).

"Exposing the muscles not only helps burn excess calories more easily, but also initiates a series of hormonal processes in the muscle that counteract the production of damaging inflammatory factors in adipose tissue," says Prof. Halle. (Ad)