Changing Movement Habits

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Anchor lead: It’s not just exercise, you really need to move more all around, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Did you know that how much you move on a daily basis is the most accurate predictor of your mortality risk? That’s not just the hours you clock at the gym or the miles you run, it’s how much you walk, get up out of your chair, or simply stand and stretch, according to research by Jacek Urbanek and colleagues at Johns Hopkins.

Urbanek: That’s actually the advantage of measuring using wearable devices. It means that we are able to observe just daily physical activity, day to day routine so we are observing your lifestyle, not only your exercise frequency. We can intervene on exercise. Maybe we can give a better guideline, for example take stairs instead of taking elevator, walk your dog more often. That might have long term impact.  :28

Urbanek notes that such habits can be modified while other factors such as age cannot. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.