Accpording to new research just published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, running for just ten minutes every day can add years to your life even if it run at a leisurely pace.
The researchers from Iowa State University said they found that runners who ran less than an hour per week have the same mortality benefits compared to runners who ran more than three hours per week and that exercise is as important as stopping smoking for your health.
A study has found that runners were 30 per cent less likely to die over 15 years than non-runners and 45 per cent less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke.
The findings are the latest to show that even a small amount of exercise is beneficial for health.
The biggest reduction in mortality was seen in the group doing a little exercise compared with those who did none.
For example the group who ran up to six miles a week cut their risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke by almost 60 per cent compared with non-runners where as the group who ran more than 20 miles a week were only 20 per cent less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than non-runners.