Getting out of breath for just a few minutes each day through short bursts of activity could lower your risk of eight major conditions including heart disease, dementia and diabetes, a study suggests. Researchers analysed data from 96,408 people to investigate the health benefits of vigorous activity. They found that even brief moments of higher intensity effort, such as running to catch a bus, were associated with a lower risk of common diseases and death.

Engaging in short spurts of vigorous activity daily might significantly reduce the risk of developing eight major health conditions, including heart disease, dementia, and diabetes, according to a recent study. The research, which scrutinized data from 96,408 individuals, highlighted that even brief moments of intense physical exertion, like sprinting to catch a bus, are linked to a decreased likelihood of common illnesses and premature death.

Read more: Find out how exercising at a specific time of day could significantly reduce the risk of heart disease.

Professor Shen also raised an intriguing question for those constrained by time: Should they prioritize higher intensity workouts over longer durations? The study, which drew data from UK Biobank participants with an average age of 62, utilized wrist-worn accelerometers to monitor physical activity over a week.

The devices ensured that data was captured even for short periods of activity that people may not remember.

Researchers analysed the data to measure both overall activity and how much of that activity was intense enough to cause breathlessness.

They then looked at health data for eight serious conditions over seven years. These were major cardiovascular disease, irregular heartbeat, type 2 diabetes, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, liver disease, chronic respiratory diseases, chronic kidney disease and dementia.

The analysis found that people who clocked up more minutes of vigorous movement had a lower risk of developing all conditions.

Compared with those who did no vigorous activity, individuals with the highest levels saw a 63% lower risk of dementia, a 60% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, and a 46% lower risk of death.

Intense exercise — even in short bursts — appeared to have particular benefits when it came to preventing inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and psoriasis.

The study was observational so could not prove that vigorous activity caused the lower risk of health conditions in some participants.

However, Professor Shen said: “Vigorous physical activity appears to trigger specific responses in the body that lower-intensity activity cannot fully replicate.

“During vigorous physical activity — the kind that makes you feel out of breath — your body responds in powerful ways.

“Your heart pumps more efficiently, your blood vessels become more flexible, and your body improves its ability to use oxygen.

“Vigorous activity also appears to reduce inflammation. This may help explain why we saw strong associations with inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis and arthritis.

“It may also stimulate chemicals in the brain that help keep brain cells healthy, which could help explain the lower risk of dementia.”

Dr Shen said adding vigorous activity to your daily routine could have “substantial health benefits”. However, he added that this does not require a trip to the gym.

The expert said: “Adding short bursts of activity that make you slightly breathless into daily life, like taking the stairs quickly, walking fast between errands or playing actively with children, can make a real difference.

“Even 15 to 20 minutes per week of this kind of effort — just a few minutes a day — was linked to meaningful health benefits.”

The findings were published in the European Heart Journal.