London - Official advice on the minimum exercise people should do may not be enough to substantially lower the risk of heart failure, experts have warned.
The British government advises that adults should undertake 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week.
Just half an hour of brisk walking, cycling or gardening, five days a week, will keep you fit and well, health officials say.
But research suggests people may need to do twice or even four times that amount of activity to see a significant effect on their heart.
Heart failure occurs when the heart is not able to supply adequate amounts of blood to the rest of the body. It is characterised by shortness of breath and a reduced ability to exercise.
Scientists from the University of Texas analysed data from 370,000 people who had been tracked as party of 12 studies.
The participants’ exercise levels were recorded and their health monitored over an average time period of 15 years.
Those who carried out two-and-a-half hours of moderate exercise a week – as recommended in Britain and the US – had a 10 percent lower risk of heart failure than those who did no physical activity at all.
But the researchers said this result was “not good enough”.
They found that those who did double the recommended exercise had a 19 percent reduced risk of heart failure.
And those who did four times as much – ten hours a week – had a 35 percent lower chance of heart failure.
Professor Jarett Berry, whose research is published in the journal Circulation, said: “Walking 30 minutes a day as recommended in the physical activity guidelines may not be good enough. Significantly more physical activity may be necessary to reduce the risk of heart failure.”
His team discovered a strong correlation between physical activity and reduced heart failure – put simply, the more exercise you do, the better.
This relationship was found to be consistent across both sexes and all the ages, races and countries studied.
Fellow researcher Ambarish Pandey said: “Future physical activity guidelines should take these findings into consideration, and potentially provide stronger recommendations regarding the value of higher amounts of physical activity for the prevention of heart failure.
“If you look at the general population, we’ve had tremendous success in reducing coronary heart disease over the past 30 years.
“But heart failure rates have not declined enough. The findings from the present study suggest that higher levels of physical activity may help combat this growing burden of heart failure.”
Maureen Talbot, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “The importance of regular physical activity in maintaining good heart health is already well known – the heart is a muscle and works more efficiently when exercised. This study indicates that the risk of developing heart failure could be reduced by physical activity and that the reduction of this risk is greater if the levels of activity are greater.
“Heart failure can be a devastating condition and the number of those affected in the UK remains stubbornly high. There are lots of reasons why you might be diagnosed with heart failure, with the most common cause being muscle damage following a heart attack.
“While the results of this study are helpful and provide further motivation to the couch potatoes among us, it is still important that everyone be as active as they can manage to be.”
Daily Mail