Walk for an extra five minutes a day to add years to your life: New study finds it can slash death risk by 10 per cent
It’s long been known staying active can help boost heart health, especially as we age, but now experts say just walking for an extra five minutes a day could help you live longer.
A new study, analysing data from more than 135,000 adults, has revealed that adding just five minutes of exercise to your normal routine can slash the risk of death in the general population by an impressive 10 per cent.
Even those who lead the most sedentary lifestyle, getting just two minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a day could see their risk of death drop by 6 per cent.
The research, published in The Lancet, also found that reducing the amount of time a person spends sitting down by just half-an-hour could prevent around 7 per cent of deaths worldwide.
They said: ‘This 30-min change appears feasible in a real world setting, underscoring the large impact of realistic and achievable behavioural goals on population health.’
Currently, physical inactivity is thought to be responsible for at least 9 per cent of deaths worldwide – but experts predict this number could be much higher.
In the study, researchers tracked 135,046 adults, aged around 63-years-old from Norway, Sweden, the US, and the UK who wore accelerometers to track physical activity.
None of the participants had any evidence of chronic disease or mobility issues at the beginning of the study.
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Experts say if everyone added five minutes of walking to their normal routine, 10 per cent of all premature deaths could be avoided
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Over a follow-up of eight years, the researchers discovered that reducing sedentary time in participants who spent more than eight hours a day not moving – comprising more than 70 per cent of the participants – was associated with a progressive lower risk.
For example, encouraging those who spent more than 11 hours sedentary a day to get up and move for just half an hour was associated with risk reductions of around 10 per cent.
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Increasing this to an hour of physical activity slashed the risk by 25 per cent.
Writing in The Lancet, the researchers said their study built on previous research that largely overlooked the fact that some individuals will not be able or willing to meet the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity a week.
‘Similarly, [previous studies have] assumed that the health benefits of changing from inactive to active are uniform for all individuals irrespective of their observed activity level,’ they added.
This is not comparable to real-world situations, the researchers say, where health conditions such as obesity, immobility and heart issues can all impact a person’s ability to perform physical activity.
However, the researchers did highlight a key limitation of their study: the results are limited to people age 40 and above.
This study was also observational, meaning that differences in death rates between different groups could- in part – be caused by differences in other factors – not just physical activity alone. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/html_modules/2024/03_MAR/240313_Steps_v2/240313_Steps.html
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Even small daily tweaks such as taking the stairs rather than the escalator can make a meaningful difference
Professor Aiden Doherty, an expert in biomedical informatics at the University of Oxford, who wasn’t involved in the current study, welcomed the researcher’s findings.
‘This is an excellent analysis, using the best available data sources that are a leap forward from the information that we have had available in the past,’ he said.
‘While this might seem like yet another “more physical activity is good for you study”, the authors have added important new details.
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‘Healthcare systems are under enormous strain. This paper indicates that up to 10 per cent of all premature deaths might be prevented if everyone were to make small and realistic increases to their moderate-intensity physical activity of five mins a day.’
A similar study, spearheaded by experts at the University of Sydney, also published today, found that the risk of premature death could be slashed by at least 10 per cent if people slept for 15 minutes more a day, added just 1.6minutes of exercise to their daily routine and ate an additional half-serving of vegetables.
Dr Nicholas Koemel, trained dietician and expert in population health and study co-author, said: ‘These findings suggest that focusing on combined small changes across multiple behaviours may offer a more powerful and sustainable strategy to improve health outcomes than targeting larger changes in an individual behaviour.’
However, experts still recommend following the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) guidance and aiming for at least 150 minutes of physical activity of this kind a week – or 75 minutes of vigorous activity.
Dr Brendon Stubbs, an expert in the interaction between physical activity and mental health, added: ‘This finding offers hope, especially to the least active, serving as an inspiring public health message.https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/html_modules/2025/07_JUL/250707_dangers_of_sleep_deprivation/index.html
‘Even small daily tweaks to activity levels can make a meaningful difference, for instance a quick brisk walk, a few extra flights of stairs, or playing energetically with the (grand)kids.’
It comes following landmark research last year which debunked the myth that 10,000 steps a day are necessary to prevent chronic conditions.
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A major review of 57 studies involving 160,000 adults found that for most health conditions, benefits tended to level off beyond 7,00 steps – providing a lower more realistic target for people to aim for.
Sedentary lifestyles in the UK, with many spending their work hours deskbound then sitting on the tube or driving home to sit down in front of the TV, have been estimated to kill thousands each year.
One 2019 estimate put the annual death toll at 70,000 people a year with the health issues caused costing the NHS £700million a year to treat.
According to data published by the WHO, insufficient physical activity is the fourth most frequent cause of the death in the world, accounting for 3.2million deaths each year.
Physical inactivity has been long linked to health problems like cardiovascular disease as well contributing to health problems like obesity, itself linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and some cancers.
New wave of violence in Ituri, DRC, further risks civilian lives
Charles Baraka Chanung iyo, rests at Salama hospital after being attacked by assailants wielding machetes and guns as he was sleeping in his house. Bunia, Ituri province, DRC, January 2025.
© Fanny Hostettler/MSF
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- New wave of violence in Ituri, DRC, further risks civilian lives
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Press Release25 March 2025
- People in Ituri province, northeastern DRC, are living amidst horrific violence, widespread displacement and a lack of aid.
- Amid the violence, people in Ituri experience difficulties in accessing healthcare, but also our teams in providing it.
- MSF calls on all state and non-state armed groups in Ituri to spare civilians, as well as healthcare facilities.
KINSHASA – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has witnessed a renewed spike in atrocities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Ituri province, where our medical teams are providing care for civilians with horrific injuries. In a new report released today, Risking Their Lives to Survive, MSF underscores the extreme needs of many communities endangered by recent attacks, increased displacement, and reduced humanitarian aid.
Risking their lives to survivepdf — 12.31 MBDownload
For decades, people in Ituri – in the northeast of DRC – have been both direct targets and treated as collateral damage in a complex conflict characterised by violence, ethnic divisions, and the participation of various armed groups. This conflict has also greatly hampered access to healthcare and the means for families to feed themselves, while the restricted provision of humanitarian aid has caused further suffering among a community that already gets little international attention.
MSF calls on all state and non-state armed groups in Ituri to spare civilians, as well as healthcare facilities, which are sanctuaries essential to the survival of local communities.
These most recent attacks follow decades of violence… which forces civilians to pick up and start their lives over, again and again.
Alira Halidou, MSF head of mission in DRC
Violence in Ituri has displaced around 100,000 people since the beginning of the year, according to the UN.1 In January and February alone, it also reported an intensification of violence against civilians, with attacks leaving more than 200 people dead and dozens injured. In February, MSF’s medical teams treated children as young as four and pregnant women for machete and gunshot wounds, following militia attacks in Djugu territory.
“These most recent attacks follow decades of violence and its devastating consequences for civilians, including women and children in Ituri,” said Alira Halidou, MSF head of mission in DRC. “The crisis here is characterised by repeated displacement, in which violence forces civilians to pick up and start their lives over, again and again. What is worse, is that the stories patients and communities tell us represent only the tip of the iceberg.” 
A woman prepares food outside her shelter in the Gengere 1 refugee camp. Ituri province, DRC, January 2025.
© Fanny Hostettler/MSF
Hindering access to healthcare
Only a small proportion of people can access healthcare in Ituri, where health facilities also fall prey to attacks. In Djugu territory, the Fataki general hospital was obliged to suspend its activities and evacuate patients in mid-March following armed group threats. This closure affects thousands of people, left without access to medical care.
In Drodro health zone, also in Djugu, nearly 50 per cent of healthcare centres have been partially or fully destroyed and have had to be relocated. When violence escalated this time last year, a patient was killed in her bed in an armed attack on Drodro’s general hospital.
Not only do these attacks make patients reluctant to go to medical facilities, but they also put medical staff at risk. One doctor interviewed for the report recounted how, when a health centre was forced to shut down for two months, he still went in to perform caesarean sections.
“It was dangerous, and I was risking my life, but we didn’t have a choice,” said the doctor. “We had to sneak there with the women, otherwise they would have died.”
It was dangerous, and I was risking my life, but we didn’t have a choice. We had to sneak there with the women, otherwise they would have died.
Doctor in Ituri province
Targeting the most vulnerable
More than half of the 39 victims of violence MSF treated at Salama clinic, Bunia, up until mid-March 2025 were women and children. One mother, whose four-year-old child was injured, lost her 6-month-old baby and her husband during an attack wielded by machete. Two sisters aged four and 16 took machete blows to the head and arms, and their mother (eight months’ pregnant) was also severely injured by multiple machete wounds. We treated a nine-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the abdomen, who had witnessed assailants attack and kill his mother and two siblings by machete.
When civilians seek refuge in displacement camps, they are still not safe. In one instance in September 2024, our teams treated five civilians with bullet wounds following an attack on Plaine Savo camp, in Fataki health zone.
When there is an upsurge in attacks against civilians, the number of victims of sexual violence coming to MSF facilities also increases. Women in particular face attack, as they go out in search of means to feed themselves and their families. In Drodro, in 2023 and 2024, around 84 per cent of the victims of sexual violence treated by MSF were attacked while working in fields, collecting firewood, or on the road.
Exacerbating unmet needs
Despite the efforts of the Ministry of Health, MSF, and other humanitarian organisations, people’s needs very much exceed the resources available. Food insecurity worsened sharply in Ituri in 2024 and is now chronic for 43 per cent of people. Poor hygiene conditions and dilapidated shelters in displacement camps mean that diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases spread easily, affecting children under five the most.
People in Ituri must be guaranteed safe access to healthcare and must not be forced to risk their lives in search of food and other needs.
Gaza: ‘No one should ever be forced to risk their life to find food,’ says UN humanitarian agency
© WHO
A severely malnourished child is treated in a hospital in Gaza.
As Gaza faces famine-like conditions, large numbers of people reportedly continue to be killed and injured while searching for food, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday.
The months-long deprivation of most life-sustaining basic goods has led to a deepening of the crisis. More than 100 people were killed, and hundreds of others injured, along food convoy routes and near Israeli-militarised distribution hubs in the past two days alone.
As one in three people currently going days without food, OCHA reiterated that no one should ever be forced to risk their life to get something to eat.
Ted Chaiban, Deputy Director of UN children’s agency UNICEF, who is fresh from a visit to Gaza, noted that “the marks of deep suffering and hunger were visible on the face of families and children.”
He was briefing journalists in New York about his five-day visit in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.
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Grave risk of famine
“Gaza now faces a grave risk of famine,” he said, briefing journalists in New York about his five-day mission to the enclave, the West Bank and Israel.
“This is something that has been building up, but we now have two indicators that have exceeded the famine threshold.”
The crisis can only be addressed through unrestricted flow of aid into Gaza, with commercial supplies also allowed to enter to help address people’s needs.
Nearly a week since the Israeli announcement to allow the scale up of aid and tactical pauses to allow safe passage of UN convoys, OCHA reported that the aid that has entered Gaza so far remains insufficient, while UN convoys continue to face impediments and danger along the routes provided by the Israeli authorities.
“Civilians must always be protected and community-level aid delivery at scale must be facilitated, not obstructed,” said OCHA.
Starved, bombed and displaced
“The children I met are not victims of a natural disaster. They are being starved, bombed, and displaced,” Mr. Chaiban said. He noted that more than 18,000 boys and girls have been killed since the beginning of the war, “an average of 28 children a day, the size of a classroom, gone.”
While in Gaza, Mr. Chaiban met with the families of the 10 children killed and 19 injured by an Israeli airstrike as they were queuing for food with their mothers and fathers at a UNICEF-supported nutrition clinic in Deir Al-Balah.
Discussion with Israeli authorities
Engaging with Israeli authorities in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, UNICEF “pressed for a review of [Israel’s] military rules of engagement to protect civilians and children,” Mr. Chaiban said.
Simultaneously, UNICEF also called for more humanitarian aid and commercial traffic to come in to stabilise the situation and reduce the desperation of the population.
“Children should not be getting killed waiting in line at a nutrition centre or collecting water, and people should not be so desperate as to have to rush a convoy,” he said.
“What is happening on the ground is inhumane.” Mr. Chaiban said, hoping for a sustained ceasefire and a political way forward.
