<p> Ten minutes of high-intensity physical activity every day may help some children reduce their risk of developing heart problems and metabolic diseases such as diabetes, a new study claims.<br /><br />Researchers from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre in the US found that replacing light-intensity physical activity with brief periods of vigorous exercise may provide significant cardiometabolic benefits in young people with relatively large waist measurements and elevated levels of insulin in their blood.<br /><br />Researchers analysed data from about 11,588 young people aged between 4 and 18 in the US, Brazil and European countries.<br /><br />Records that included the child's age, gender, level of physical activity and at least one biomarker - a measurable indicator of a medical state or condition - of a cardiometabolic risk were focused on.<br /><br />These included weight circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and bloodstream levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose and insulin.<br /><br />Researchers found only 32 significant associations out of a possible 360 while evaluating the relationships between the biomarkers and vigorous physical activity when controlling for various factors including age, gender, duration and level of exercise and sedentary time.<br /><br />All 32 were related to reduced waist circumference and insulin levels. The relationships between high-intensity exercise and the other biomarkers were inconsistent.<br /><br />"The results suggest that substituting modest amounts of vigorous physical activity for longer-duration light exercise may have cardiometabolic benefits above and beyond those conveyed by moderate activity and the avoidance of sedentary behaviour," said Justin B Moore, associate professor at Wake Forest Baptist.<br /><br />"But as vigorous activity was independently associated with only two of the markers examined, it may be that its truly meaningful benefits may be limited, relative to less-intense exercise," Moore added.<br /><br />The study was published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.</p>
<p> Ten minutes of high-intensity physical activity every day may help some children reduce their risk of developing heart problems and metabolic diseases such as diabetes, a new study claims.<br /><br />Researchers from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre in the US found that replacing light-intensity physical activity with brief periods of vigorous exercise may provide significant cardiometabolic benefits in young people with relatively large waist measurements and elevated levels of insulin in their blood.<br /><br />Researchers analysed data from about 11,588 young people aged between 4 and 18 in the US, Brazil and European countries.<br /><br />Records that included the child's age, gender, level of physical activity and at least one biomarker - a measurable indicator of a medical state or condition - of a cardiometabolic risk were focused on.<br /><br />These included weight circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and bloodstream levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose and insulin.<br /><br />Researchers found only 32 significant associations out of a possible 360 while evaluating the relationships between the biomarkers and vigorous physical activity when controlling for various factors including age, gender, duration and level of exercise and sedentary time.<br /><br />All 32 were related to reduced waist circumference and insulin levels. The relationships between high-intensity exercise and the other biomarkers were inconsistent.<br /><br />"The results suggest that substituting modest amounts of vigorous physical activity for longer-duration light exercise may have cardiometabolic benefits above and beyond those conveyed by moderate activity and the avoidance of sedentary behaviour," said Justin B Moore, associate professor at Wake Forest Baptist.<br /><br />"But as vigorous activity was independently associated with only two of the markers examined, it may be that its truly meaningful benefits may be limited, relative to less-intense exercise," Moore added.<br /><br />The study was published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.</p>