16 1GM Thursday November 26 2020 | the timesNews
There is hope for couch potatoes, as
research shows that increasing physical
activity can offset some of the harm
caused by sitting for long periods.
The World Health Organisation has
issued guidelines advising people to
aim for 150 to 300 minutes of moder-
ate-intensity activity, or 75 to 100 min-
utes of vigorous-intensity activity each
week.
Moderate-intensity activity — such
as brisk walking or dancing — raises
the heart rate, and although it makes
breathing harder, people can still talk.
Vigorous activity includes running,
jogging or playing tennis.
Exceeding those levels, it added,
could counter the risk of early death
that is linked to being sedentary for a
long time. All physical activity, includ-
ing housework and gardening, is bene-
ficial, it said.
The guidelines are published in the
British Journal of Sports Medicine,
alongside a meta-analysis of studies
that used activity trackers to assess how
physical activity and sedentary life-
styles might affect health.
The research involved 44,000 people
across four countries. Those who were
sedentary for ten or more hours per day
were at heightened risk of dying early,
particularly if they were physically in-
active.
Previous studies had suggested that
adding physical activity to people’s days
did not offset the harmful effects of
sitting for long periods, but the latest
research suggested that it could.
People who sat for long periods but
who added 30 to 40 minutes of moder-
ate to vigorous activity to their day
brought their risk down to levels asso-
ciated with very low amounts of seden-
tary time.
“Physical activity of any type and anyModerate exercise
can offset the harm
of sitting too much
duration can improve health and well-
being, but more is always better,”
Ruediger Krech, director of health pro-
motion at the World Health Organisa-
tion, said.
The guidelines encourage women to
maintain regular physical activity
throughout pregnancy and after giving
birth, and highlight the benefits of
physical activity for people with disabil-
ities.
People aged 65 and over are advised
to add activities emphasising balance
and co-ordination, such as dancing,
and muscle strengthening, such as
weightlifting, to prevent falls and im-
prove health.
“Being physically active is critical for
health and wellbeing — it can help to
add years to life and life to years,” Ted-
ros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-
general of the WHO, said. “Every move
counts, especially now as we manage
the constraints of the Covid-19 pan-
demic. We must all move every day –
safely and creatively.”
Emmanuel Stamatakis, of the Uni-
versity of Sydney, who co-edited the
special edition of the journal introduc-
ing the guidelines and the research,
said: “Although the new guidelines re-
flect the best available science, there
are still some gaps in our knowledge.
We are still not clear, for example,
where exactly the bar for ‘too much sit-
ting’ is. But this is a fast-paced field of
research, and we will hopefully have
answers in a few years’ time.”
He added that while the pandemic
“has confined people indoors for long
periods and encouraged an increase in
sedentary behaviour”, people could still
protect their health. “There are plenty
of indoor options that don’t need a lot of
space or equipment, such as climbing
the stairs, active play with children or
pets, dancing, or online yoga or Pilates
classes,” he said.Kat Lay Health Editorclimbing up the Cwm
that morning, and
partly because I was
very, very excited at
what had happened!”
She described giving
a coded message to a
Sherpa runner to take
to a radio station 35
miles away and a longer
report to carry “over
the mountains, through
the rhododendrons
(can’t spell it) and the
forests, to Kathmandu”.
The story appeared
in The Times on the
day of the Coronation.
In the letter, Morris
said she would never
forget “when I turned
on my little wireless set
on June 2, 1953,
(Coronation Day) and
heard the announcer
say that my message
had got through, that
the Queen knew of the
climbing of Everest,
and that all you people
at home were
celebrating with us”.TIMES NEWSPAPERS LTDA
letter from the
late writer Jan
Morris telling
of a gruelling
race to break the news
of the successful 1953
Everest ascent to Times
readers has been made
public for the first time
(Mark Bridge writes).
Morris, who died last
Friday, aged 94, replied
in September 1954 to
Scout Road Primary in
Mytholmroyd, WestYorkshire, many
months after pupils
wrote to her as part of
a project on the
expedition. She was
then known as James
Morris before having
gender reassignment
surgery in 1972.
The letter, typed on
the same machine as
Morris’s Everest
dispatches, has been
shared by Richard
Groom, a former pupilLetter recalls icy tale
behind Everest scoop
and son of Ray Groom
the headmaster at the
time. Morris, who was
special correspondent
for The Times and the
only journalist on the
expedition, recalled
the descent from the
advance camp at
21,200ft where she was
waiting for Edmund
Hillary and Tenzing
Norgay to return after
they reached the
29,029ft summit.
Morris described
crossing the icefall todescend to base camp
as “the hardest part of
my own little Everest
expedition — much
harder than going up”.
Morris wrote: “I was
for ever falling into
small crevasses, or
getting stuck in the
snow, or falling over
the rope, or dropping
my iceaxe, or
something: partly
because I was fuddled
by the height, and
partly because I was
very tired afterJan Morris (then James)
with the expedition team,
including Sir Edmund
Hillary, far left, and
Tenzing Norgay. She
wrote to a school about
her Everest experience