Manuel Martínez-Sellés
President of the Madrid Medical Association, Professor of Medicine at the European University of Madrid, and Head of the Cardiology Department at Gregorio Marañón Hospital
This is a well-designed study, based on data from the UK Biobank, with nearly 18,000 participants who experienced more than 1,000 cardiovascular events during follow-up.
Although the authors found that meeting the standard recommendation of 150 minutes of physical activity per week resulted in a moderate risk reduction, four times as much time (around 600 minutes/week) was needed to achieve maximum protection against the risk of cardiovascular events. The study suggests that to achieve optimal cardiovascular protection, we need more frequent physical activity than previously thought—almost an hour and a half daily.