Macmillan in the Midlands Recovery Package Resource

Chief Medical Officer – Recommended activity levels

Be active every day accumulating 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more. Exercise to improve muscle strength on at least 2 days of the week. If at risk of falls, use exercises to improve balance and coordination.  Reduce sedentary behaviour, so the amount of time spent sitting/resting.

The ACSM guidelines say that these guidelines are appropriate for PLWC and people should aspire to work towards these. In terms of cancer specific literature, we’ve seen that there is a dose response relationship in some studies– by that, doing something is better than nothing and also been shown in general population. For those who go from nothing to some activity, they will see the biggest benefit. It is not about telling PLWC you have to do 150 minutes, it is about doing as much as they can. For those going through treatment, it’s about working around fatigue and reducing sedentary behaviour and being as active as possible. They key message is that doing something is better than nothing.

• Sedentary behaviour is an independent risk factor for ill health and that there is growing attention to sedentary behaviour as a lifestyle issue
• There is a close response/relationship with sedentary behaviour ie. the more sitting you do the more damaging it is for you!
• From the slide, in Older people sitting for 8 to 11 hours increased risk of all cause mortality by 35%, more than 11 hours by 52%
• The minimum health professionals should be advocating is that moving more is good and people should seek to minimise their sedentary behaviour however and whenever possible