Here\u2019s how the top recommended health targets actually stand up to modern science:<\/span><\/p>\n The NHS recommends that UK adults get 150 minutes of moderate, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThese recommendations are the minimum that people need to do to gain health benefits from physical activity, based on four decades of research,\u201d says Dr Gavin Sandercock<\/a>, professor of sport, rehabilitation and exercise sciences at the University of Essex.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you follow the recommendations, you\u2019re about 11-15 per cent less likely to die of anything, compared to people who do nothing, and your risk of dying of a heart attack is about 20 per cent lower.\u201d<\/p>\n But he says they\u2019re a watered-down version of the first activity guidelines from 1991, which were for 150 minutes of moderate \u2013 but preferably vigorous \u2013 activity, in addition to what you already do, in bouts of at least half an hour a pop.<\/p>\n \u201cThe science is really strong for vigorous activity,\u201d says Sandercock. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean with the eyes popping out, it just means having a higher heart rate.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything we know about exercise physiology, everything I\u2019ve learned in the past 25 years, tells me that vigorous is best and I recommend it to anyone who is healthy enough to do it. If you want to get fitter, you have to work harder.\u201d<\/p>\n In surveys on physical activity, people tend to exaggerate how much they\u2019ve done, says Sandercock. It\u2019s easier to determine accurately how much vigorous activity you did, and not kid yourself about it.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I asked you how far you\u2019d run, you probably know, whereas if I asked you how far you walked this week, you\u2019d have trouble answering because it\u2019s more of an incidental activity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Dr Koula Asimakopoulou<\/a>, a reader in health psychology at King\u2019s College London, worries that these targets don\u2019t provide any sense of motivation. \u201cDifferent people will have different ideas of what \u2018moderate\u2019 and \u2018vigorous\u2019 mean,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n But even if you\u2019re motivated to read the small print for examples (which for \u2018moderate\u2019 exercise include walking, lawn-mowing and rollerblading, versus running, swimming or aerobics for \u2018vigorous\u2019 activity), that alone is unlikely to be enough to start new behaviour so you can get fitter.<\/p>\n Planning, removing any friction by getting your running kit or wet-weather gear ready the night before, finding an activity you enjoy and doing it with friends will all help make those fitness dreams become real.<\/p>\n Verdict:<\/strong> You don\u2019t have to sweat it out in a smelly gym class to stay fit.<\/em><\/p>\n Seven to eight hours of sleep<\/a> a night has been proven to be the magic number of hours for adults, with babies, children and teenagers needing more. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis amount of sleep will ensure the brain has the appropriate time to do what it needs for healthy functioning. Some people can tolerate a shorter window of time, and others need a bit more, but seven to eight hours is the average,\u201d says Dr Nilong Vyas<\/a>, managing director at paediatric sleep consultancy Sleepless in NOLA and a medical review expert at the Sleep Foundation. <\/span><\/p>\n The majority of people who get seven or eight hours per night report feeling better rested, with improved mood and health, she says. But it\u2019s an ideal target rather than something to get stressed about. <\/span><\/p>\n So if focusing on seven to eight hours of shuteye is not helping you sleep better, another target to strive for is eliminating electronics at least one hour before bedtime.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is an extraordinarily hard task and target to achieve for many. However, prioritising both targets will ensure an avalanche of health benefits,\u201d says Vyas. <\/span><\/p>\n In terms of behaviour change, \u201cit is more about placing the sleep goal within a lifestyle that allows you to do it, by telling yourself that the sleep goal is higher value to you than the staying-up-late-to-get-the-overdue-report-written goal,\u201d says Asimakopoulou. <\/span><\/p>\n Planning when, where and how you will achieve the goal is vital, she says, along with consciously deciding to drop competing goals that prevent you from getting enough Verdict:<\/strong> Get enough shuteye and reap the health benefits.<\/em><\/p>\n According to UK guidelines, adults should stick to no more than 14 units of alcohol a week<\/a>, spread over a period of three days or more.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you stick to a maximum of 14 units a week, your chances of dying of an alcohol-related disease are probably one in 100 or less,\u201d says Sir Ian Gilmore<\/a>, chair of Alcohol Health Alliance UK and founder of Liverpool Centre for Alcohol Research. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s estimated most people would accept a risk of one in 100, as nothing in life is free of risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The struggle, however, is getting people to adopt those recommendations. The drivers of how much people drink, and how much harm is seen, are basically price, availability and marketing, he explains.<\/span><\/p>\n Plus, as he says, most people enjoy a drink. \u201cIt\u2019s associated with fun and celebrations. I\u2019ve never heard someone say \u2018so-and-so is a really good smoker, he can really hold his cigarettes\u2019. There\u2019s still that heroic image around drinking.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n People are also very bad at remembering advice on units, says Gilmore. \u201cI can\u2019t help sometimes thinking people are quite keen to be confused and say, \u2018Oh, well, it\u2019s all too difficult. It\u2019s not my problem anyway.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But he says the majority of harm is not just seen in heavy, dependent drinkers. \u201cIt\u2019s actually in the people in the middle who are not alcohol-dependent. And if you could just shift the whole of the consumption curve down by a couple of units, you would save thousands of lives.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Asimakopoulou, lowering your alcohol consumption is all about intention. \u201cYou need to think about opportunity and motivation \u2013 so you would need to make the conscious decision to not have a drink if, for example, you are out every evening.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Reading up on the cold, hard facts is the first step towards that motivation, she says. If you don\u2019t know and believe in the benefits of cutting down, it\u2019s never going to happen. Planning when you will and will not drink is useful, as is knowing the units in actual drinks that you enjoy.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe vast majority of people do not know that alcohol is linked to seven common cancers, including breast cancer and colon cancer,\u201d says Gilmore. Alcohol-free months can help, he says, as long as they\u2019re not seen as a free pass to get blotto the rest of the year (they\u2019re not).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAlcohol Change, the charity behind Dry January, has shown that six months and 12 months afterwards there is a significant improvement in some people\u2019s relationship with alcohol. It\u2019s about showing people that they can go without, allowing them to reset their relationship with alcohol,\u201d says Gilmore.<\/span><\/p>\n Verdict:<\/strong> Moderate consumption can still cause harm.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe 10,000 steps target was a gimmick that was produced for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, by a pedometer company,\u201d says Sandercock.<\/p>\n But one of the big controversies is whether we should count incidental movement in the activity guidelines. \u201cIf we did 10,000 [proper] steps a day everyone would be doing around 1,680 minutes per week of activity, but it\u2019s just moving around. If you\u2019re wearing an accelerometer or pedometer, it could misconstrue any movement as a step.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re trying to increase your walking, a pedometer can help, but might it not work for long. One 2013 study found that over a period of four weeks, a pedometer increased participants\u2019 walking more than being given walking goals in minutes<\/a>, although after this time, walking times started to decrease again. Perhaps the novelty had worn off. If you want to sustain these gains, you might be better off getting a dog.<\/p>\n Sandercock\u2019s advice, depending on how old you are, is to up your steps by 15 per cent. \u201cThat\u2019s been shown to be effective in studies, and there\u2019s also really good evidence to show that older adults don\u2019t need to do 10,000 steps. Usually, 6,000 steps are enough to keep them out of things like frailty classifications, and this is associated with better health.\u201d<\/p>\n Verdict: <\/strong>Count your steps, but tread carefully\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n RDA \u2013 a term from the US that\u2019s also familiar in the UK \u2013 stands for Recommended Dietary Allowance. In the UK and Europe, the official ideal daily measure for nutrients is called the \u2018dietary reference intake\u2019. They\u2019re not identical, but both indicate the optimum levels of nutrients needed every day to keep most of the population healthy.<\/p>\n Based on averages, these figures can be misleading for individuals, says Dr Susan Fairweather-Tait<\/a>, professor in health policy and practice at the University of East Anglia Medical School, with a special interest in micronutrients. \u201cNot everybody needs that level of intake,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, she adds, seeing these figures on product and supplement labels is useful as a rough guide. But rather than being taken as instruction for what you need to ingest each day \u2013 which would be impossible to calculate precisely, as foods vary so much and you\u2019re unlikely to weigh each portion \u2013 they are most important in avoiding overdosing.<\/p>\n \u201c[With supplements] people often think, \u2018one capsule good, two must be better\u2019. But you can buy supplements in massively high doses, and it\u2019s dangerous. Taking too much vitamin C won\u2019t do you any harm, but things like vitamin D and vitamin A can be quite dangerous.<\/p>\n \u201cWith selenium, the gap between what you require and what becomes toxic is very narrow, so if people read an article saying selenium is a great antioxidant, they could go over the top and make themselves ill. Consumers are being misled, they\u2019re wasting money and putting their health at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Sarah Berry<\/a>, associate professor of nutritional sciences at King\u2019s College London, agrees. \u201cWhile RDAs are useful on a population level, not everybody will need to supplement to reach their ideal amount of a certain nutrient,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cAs humans we eat food, not individual nutrients, so for most people eating a variety of foods is likely to provide the necessary key nutrients needed for health.\u201d<\/p>\n Exceptions include pregnant women, vegans and people with specific health conditions taking their doctor\u2019s advice. If in doubt, Berry does not believe there is any harm in taking a standard dose multivitamin as an \u2018insurance\u2019 policy.<\/p>\n Verdict:<\/strong> Be aware of your RDAs \u2013 and the damage of obsessing over them.<\/em><\/p>\n Dr Gavin Sandercock<\/strong><\/a> is professor of sport, rehabilitation and exercise sciences at the University of Essex. He primarily studies the impact of exercise on the cardio health on elderly people and children.<\/p>\n Sir Ian Gilmore<\/strong><\/a> is a professor of hepatology, director of the Liverpool Centre for Alcohol Research, and chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance. He is a former president of the Royal College of Physician, and helped form Alcohol Health Alliance UK.<\/p>\n Dr Nilong Vyas<\/a><\/strong> is a sleep consultant based in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. She is owner of the Sleepless in NOLA family clinic.<\/p>\n Dr Susan Fairweather-Tait<\/a><\/strong> is a professor in health policy and practice at University of East Anglia Medical School, and head of the University\u2019s Nutrition Division. Her research covers Mineral metabolism in humans, and micronutrient requirements.<\/p>\n Dr Sarah Berry<\/strong><\/a> is associate professor of nutritional sciences at King\u2019s College London, and chief scientist at personalised health company ZOE. She is also the lead nutritional scientist on the PREDICT programme, assessing the metabolism of 3,000 people across the UK and US.<\/p>\n Read more:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <\/body><\/html>\n The simple guidelines that could transform your health \u2013 and the ones you should ignore. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24184,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"10"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/10000-steps-8-hours-sleep-heres-what-modern-science-actually-says-about-recommended-health-targets.jpg",1200,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/10000-steps-8-hours-sleep-heres-what-modern-science-actually-says-about-recommended-health-targets-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/10000-steps-8-hours-sleep-heres-what-modern-science-actually-says-about-recommended-health-targets-300x125.jpg",300,125,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/10000-steps-8-hours-sleep-heres-what-modern-science-actually-says-about-recommended-health-targets-768x320.jpg",768,320,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/10000-steps-8-hours-sleep-heres-what-modern-science-actually-says-about-recommended-health-targets-1024x427.jpg",800,334,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/10000-steps-8-hours-sleep-heres-what-modern-science-actually-says-about-recommended-health-targets.jpg",1200,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/10000-steps-8-hours-sleep-heres-what-modern-science-actually-says-about-recommended-health-targets.jpg",1200,500,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The simple guidelines that could transform your health \u2013 and the ones you should ignore.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}150 minutes of exercise a week<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>8 hours of sleep a night<\/strong><\/h2>\n
14 units of alcohol a week<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>10,000 steps a day<\/strong><\/h2>\n
A good balance of nutrients<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>About our experts<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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