MOVE: The Godilocks Principle for Dosage

Spoiler Summary: We've learned a ton, but there are still many unanswered questions in regards to healthy lifestyle.  For now, what we know is....it works; what we're learning is, the dose required to get the results. 

The era of lifestyle "dosing" is almost here. Although science hasn't brought forth an exact best-dose for every disease or risk we face (for example a group in Australia recently showed that all forms and volumes of exercise significantly reduced liver-fat and visceral fat--the dangerous organ fat that predicts health complications--even without weight loss in about the same amount), in many cases, researchers continue to scour the data and seem to be getting very close to being able to tell us exactly how much MOVE we need.

If things continue at the pace they're on, it won't be long for example, that professionals will be able to make recommendations that sound much more like reading the instructions that come with a medication ("adults should take X every four to six hours", "don't exceed Y in a 24 hour period", etc) than the general, vague and sometimes hard to follow recommendations that have been in the conversation for a very long time: "You need to eat less and exercise more".  It's great news for people who know they want to improve their health and quality of life through healthy-lifestyle but have struggled in knowing how best to do it.

So what do we know so far?  If there's a label that can be applied, it's probably reasonable to say that we're in "effective range testing", learning the minimum dose required and trying to know if there's a maximum effective dose (before harm is being done).  For example, an important recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that meeting 1-2x the "minimum standard" for moderate activity per week (150-300 minutes per week during leisure time) had a major impact on risk of dying (30%).  Increase the dose to 3-5x (450-750 minutes per week) and get an even better impact (39% reduction).  Even though the effect seemed to level off there, suggesting 450-750 might be the sweet-spot, there was still an impact for those who didn't meet the minimum (20%) and there wasn't any significant harm for those who logged as much as 10x the recommended minimum (31% reduction for 1500 min per week) and far-exceeded the sweet spot....but that's not all.

In March, a group of researchers showed that, again, not unlike some medications, some doses are particularly effective when taken with food.  For example, adolescents who aren't quite "there yet" in regards to healthy nutrition may be able to use pre-meal exercise to minimize the negative blood-vessel impact (reduced blood flow) that follows a not-so-healthy meal choice. Specifically, 25 minutes of moderate exercise pre-meal had a significant impact.  HOWEVER (great news for those who are pressed for time), as little as 8 minutes of high-intensity (90% max) exercise had an even slightly better effect....so maybe it doesn't take the major time commitment we sometimes tell ourselves?

And if you really want to get creative think about this.....in some cases, it doesn't have to be traditional exercise at all....an early study suggests that dancing the tango seems to help individuals with early Parkinson's Disease. 

So what's the "take home" message on the science of movement to prevent and treat disease?  If there's a "too cold" - it's doing nothing.  If there's a "too hot" - it probably has more to do with knowing your personal limits than simply a number of minutes in general......and, like most things the more we learn the more we realize....there's likely a "just right".