You Can Reduce Your Early Death Risk By Making This Small Change – Health Digest

Social media highlights some of the physical benefits of exercise, such as looking great in a tank top or showing off chiseled abs in the summer. Sure, exercise can help you lose weight and gain muscle, but there are other reasons why most health organizations recommend getting at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. Exercise helps reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer while also boosting your mental health. Here’s another benefit: Exercise helps you live longer.

Before you sign up for a marathon or join a CrossFit gym, there’s one way to help you get a little bit of exercise every day: taking the stairs. Those few moments of climbing might be enough to reduce your risk of early death by 9%, according to a 2021 study in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Muscle. That might not seem like much, but climbing six to 10 steps a day can extend your life by up to 55 days.

Longevity physician Dr. Scott Noorda says that while small changes like taking the stairs more often might not seem to make a difference at first, they can make a huge difference. “Once we get past the willpower stage (the first month or so), then the small change becomes a habit — something that we do without thinking — and so we no longer need the brain output required for willpower.”

Starting an exercise program can be daunting, especially if you have friends who spend a ton of money on equipment or trainers. You might even have friends who will spend long hours on their sport or exercise. Dr. Scott Noorda says this isn’t necessary.

“We love to see and celebrate big, extraordinary wins, but the fact is, most of the success that we will find in attempting to improve our lives and our overall health will come as the result of small daily habits,” he said. It’s all about breaking up your sedentary time. “The little things that we do, like parking farther away from the store, taking the stairs, or setting an alarm to stand up and do 10 squats every 20 minutes during the work day, can add up to make a huge difference.”

A 2022 article in Nature Medicine says those few minutes of exercise do make a difference. People who engaged in three short bursts of activity of one to two minutes each day lowered their cancer mortality risk by up to 40% and their cancer mortality risk by almost 50%. A wearable tracker will let you know if these short bursts pick up your heart rate.

Adopting new habits can be much harder than taking a pill, Noorda said. However, the rewards you’ll receive from your new habits will pay off more. (Here are 9 habits that could help you live longer, according to science.) Dr. Scott Noorda suggests three ways to make your habits stick. The first is habit stacking, where you add something to a behavior you already do. This might mean doing 10 pushups after brushing your teeth or doing as many bodyweight squats as you can while you wait for your tea to steep.

Noorda also says that it’s important to find someone who will become your ally in making your new habit stick. You can text them with a daily report or have them periodically check on your progress. “Knowing that someone is counting on you is often enough to keep you going when it gets hard,” Noorda said.

The third tool Noorda suggests is replacing an old habit with a new one. “When you remove a bad habit, it’s very important to fill that void with a replacement or else you can create a vacuum effect that backfires,” he said. He works with people trying to give up tobacco, caffeine, sugar, or alcohol, and giving up something cold turkey will make you miss it more. “If you can replace, for example, the soda with water kefir or the coffee with golden milk, you fill the gap left behind.”