'Walk Snacks Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease and Early Death

The evidence base for the benefits of walking just gets stronger and stronger. Sometimes the research focuses on the time spent walking, other times it focuses on the time spent doing walking that could be classified as MIPA or MVPA standing for Moderate Intensity Physical Cativity or Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity.

What is clear is that brisk walking, that is walking fast enough to make your breath come a little faster but not so fast that you cannot talk to the person walking alongside you, is Moderate Intensity Physical Activity. This is the level of exercise the Chief Medical Officers of the United Kingdom, and experts around the world, recommend as being necessary for thirty minutes a day, at least five days a week. Of course, there are other ways of doing this such as swimming or running or cycling but thirty minutes of brisk walking is the easiest to do and it need not be done in one single spell.

A very important paper was published in The Lancet on the 4th January highlighting the benefits of this type of activity and the key conclusions are set out below.

Small and realistic increase of MPVA or 5 min/day might prevent up to 6% of all deaths in a high risk approach and 10% in a population-based approach. Reducing sedentary time by 30 minutes/day might prevent a smaller, but still meaningful, proportion of deaths in the two risk scenarios (1)

This is not the only study and a powerful editorial in Nature on the 26th of January which was titled the surprisingly big health benefits of just a little exercise- 'exercise snacks' and other forms of everyday movement can greatly reduce the risk of heart disease and death, This conclusion was based on seven scientific studies.

So, the evidence is clear and strong. We need to create small increases in activity and small decreases in the time spent sitting. Brisk walking is the best way to achieve both these objectives because it doesn't require special equipment or preparation, or any showering afterwards! Furthermore, it is clear that thirty minutes need not be taken in one batch.

Decreasing sitting and increasing moderate intensity physical activity will help you Live Longer Better for example reducing the risk of the problems that people fear most, such as dementia or being unable to reach the toilet in time and becoming dependent on social care.

But it is not just a matter of giving more knowledge to individuals. We need to campaign for a change in the environment which determines the choices that people make. For example every organisation in which employees have to sit most of the time at screens or in meetings, and of course the NHS is one of these, there has to be a culture that encourages people to walk the last 10 minutes to work and then making 'lunch time' actually 'lunch and walk time'. Motivation can be further increased by adopting a charity for sponsored walking and even more by getting departments to compete with one another

So let's promote 'walk snacks'

Muir Gray

Ekelund E et al 2026

Deaths potentially averted by small changes in physical activity and sedentary time : an individual participant data meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

Lancet 407; 339-349