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CNN Live Today
'Daily Dose'
Aired May 27, 2003 - 11:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in our "Daily Dose" today, that old saying, no pain, no gain, might not be totally on target after all. A new study says you don't need to run five miles a day to help your heart.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to fill us in.
Does that mean we don't have to break a sweat?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a little bit of a sweat, maybe a glow. I wouldn't necessarily call it a sweat. But you know, people sometimes think, to help my heart, I need to get on the treadmill and I need to really sweat, it needs to be like a really serious workout.
Well, what this study has found, and there are several others that found the same thing, is that even moderate physical activity can help your heart. Let's look at the results of this study. It was done in Germany, and published in "The Archives of Internal Medicine" here in the U.S. They found that people who did one to two ours of moderate physical activity a week had a decreased risk of heart disease, by 40 percent. That's a pretty big number. When people did two or more hours of moderate physical activity a week, they saw their risk of heart disease decrease by 60 percent.
Now, I'm sure you're asking, what the heck is moderate physical activity? So let's go over what that means. Moderate physical activity would be things like walking, even gardening, moving furniture. You know, when you move furniture, you can feel your heart rate getting up there. Heavy vacuuming, another thing, not fun, but we all -- you have got to do heavy vacuuming every so often, and playing ball with your kids in the yard. Those would all be moderate physical activities.
So in other words, the bottom line message is that you don't need to be doing these huge chunks of physical activity. They don't need to make you sweat so much that you have to change your clothes. Even the little things can add up.
WHITFIELD: So a lot of these things that you mentioned are also kind of stress busters. Is it really boiling down to just reducing stress, and that should be how you moderate how much activity you do?
COHEN: Yes, to some extent these probably are helpful, because they reduce stress, but they're also helpful, because even taking a walk for 15 minutes can still make your heart rate get up a little. You might not feel it so much, but it's certainly better than just sitting around.
So, for example, if you live in a city and you're walking 15 minutes to and from on a bus, you know, from your bus stop, even that could help.
Let's take a look at what the CDC recommends, because they get very specific. They say accumulate 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day most days of the week.
Now, that accumulating part is really crucial. So in other words, three 10-minute increments a day is OK. So, for example, you walk to your bus stop, that's 10 minutes, and then you garden 10 minutes later on in the day. And then at night, you're out in the yard playing with your kids for 10 minutes. Put that all together, that's 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, and it could help your heart.
WHITFIELD: That's encouraging. Because break it down that way, everyone could do this.
COHEN: Everyone could do this, right, but you do need to think about it, because people are getting more and more sedentary, so you know, go take that 15-minute walk, go play ball with your kids in the yard.
WHITFIELD: But often, a lot of us make excuses, saying we don't have an hour or even 30 minutes to try to do it all. So if you just break it up in those increments like you suggest...
COHEN: Everyone has 10 minutes.
WHITFIELD: Yes, all right, very good. Thanks very much, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 27, 2003 - 11:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in our "Daily Dose" today, that old saying, no pain, no gain, might not be totally on target after all. A new study says you don't need to run five miles a day to help your heart.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to fill us in.
Does that mean we don't have to break a sweat?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a little bit of a sweat, maybe a glow. I wouldn't necessarily call it a sweat. But you know, people sometimes think, to help my heart, I need to get on the treadmill and I need to really sweat, it needs to be like a really serious workout.
Well, what this study has found, and there are several others that found the same thing, is that even moderate physical activity can help your heart. Let's look at the results of this study. It was done in Germany, and published in "The Archives of Internal Medicine" here in the U.S. They found that people who did one to two ours of moderate physical activity a week had a decreased risk of heart disease, by 40 percent. That's a pretty big number. When people did two or more hours of moderate physical activity a week, they saw their risk of heart disease decrease by 60 percent.
Now, I'm sure you're asking, what the heck is moderate physical activity? So let's go over what that means. Moderate physical activity would be things like walking, even gardening, moving furniture. You know, when you move furniture, you can feel your heart rate getting up there. Heavy vacuuming, another thing, not fun, but we all -- you have got to do heavy vacuuming every so often, and playing ball with your kids in the yard. Those would all be moderate physical activities.
So in other words, the bottom line message is that you don't need to be doing these huge chunks of physical activity. They don't need to make you sweat so much that you have to change your clothes. Even the little things can add up.
WHITFIELD: So a lot of these things that you mentioned are also kind of stress busters. Is it really boiling down to just reducing stress, and that should be how you moderate how much activity you do?
COHEN: Yes, to some extent these probably are helpful, because they reduce stress, but they're also helpful, because even taking a walk for 15 minutes can still make your heart rate get up a little. You might not feel it so much, but it's certainly better than just sitting around.
So, for example, if you live in a city and you're walking 15 minutes to and from on a bus, you know, from your bus stop, even that could help.
Let's take a look at what the CDC recommends, because they get very specific. They say accumulate 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day most days of the week.
Now, that accumulating part is really crucial. So in other words, three 10-minute increments a day is OK. So, for example, you walk to your bus stop, that's 10 minutes, and then you garden 10 minutes later on in the day. And then at night, you're out in the yard playing with your kids for 10 minutes. Put that all together, that's 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, and it could help your heart.
WHITFIELD: That's encouraging. Because break it down that way, everyone could do this.
COHEN: Everyone could do this, right, but you do need to think about it, because people are getting more and more sedentary, so you know, go take that 15-minute walk, go play ball with your kids in the yard.
WHITFIELD: But often, a lot of us make excuses, saying we don't have an hour or even 30 minutes to try to do it all. So if you just break it up in those increments like you suggest...
COHEN: Everyone has 10 minutes.
WHITFIELD: Yes, all right, very good. Thanks very much, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
