Are Chores Good for Your Health?

Dr. Jim Applegate joins us to discuss the cardiovascular benefits of doing chores. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well here's one just for Schmidty. Turns out household chores
are good for your health. This is West Michigan's Morning News.
Steve Kelly, Laurence Smith next to Tony Brooks for filling
in for Brett Keita. Doctor Jim Applegate joining us on
the liveline this morning. Doc, thanks for doing this today.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's always a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Not to whack it with my wooden spoon.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
So I knew this one would get me in trouble.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
What are we talking about?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
As soon as I read it. They were going to
get me in trouble. Well, this is this is a
study out of Australia and it's a they look at
men and women who are mostly at home, and it
was over thirteen thousand women and over nine thousand men,
and they wore a wrist monitor to monitor their activities

(00:52):
over a month or or over several months actually and
not you know, not to be sexist. So they did
both men and women. And what they did is they
looked at something that they're calling vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity.
That's a fancy way for saying I'm doing chores like

(01:13):
laundry and carrying the basket upstairs. So they looked at
all of this, and they found that short bursts of
vigorous activity like doing the laundry, putting in a laundry basket,
carrying it upstairs, actually lowered your risk of cardiovascular disease,
and more in women than in men.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Oh no, justin, I could stuck you in a dryer.
So is it What about the amount do we spread
these activities out? For instance, I'm looking at about five
loads of laundry coming my way this weekend. Do I
want to do them all like on a Sunday or
maybe it's a loaded day if you're trying to get
in those steps.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Well, they looked for they looked at three point four
minutes of vigorous activity like getting the laundry, putting in
the laundry basket, carrying it upstairs, and wherever you're going
to fold it. So it's three point four minutes is
what they found. You needed to do several times a day.
They didn't say exactly how many several this, but several

(02:14):
times a day to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.
And I suppose this is really a good thing because
one of the things I've often done with household chores.
Was trying to reset my brain to say, Okay, yes
this is a chore, but it's actually healthy for me.
And that's the way to look at doing household chores.
Whether you're a man or a woman, household chores are

(02:37):
actually good for you. They keep you healthier. And there
they looked at people that don't exercise at all, which
is the majority of our population. But it shows you
that actually any sort of vigorous activity, even doing the
laundry and carrying it upstairs, can be good for you. You
have to do it at least for two minutes. They
found that one point nine minutes of vigorous activity. But

(03:00):
if you can just do that several times a day,
you will be healthier for it.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
You've already answered my question, Schmidn't you have another one?

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Tell me that picking your kids up and down, up
and down, up and down, because there's one gender that
gets asked to do that far more than the other,
is also very healthy.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, it is, but it has to be two minutes.
Two minutes of carrying that kid around, and if you
can get it for five minutes, that's even healthier. So yeah,
so that's the way to frame it. It's just like
these are physical activities and so oh my god, I
don't want to do a launder again. If you can
reframe it to physical activity, that's good. And there's a
significant benefit from doing all these both psychologically getting the

(03:44):
work done, but physically actually moving your body, getting your
heart rate up. You know, if you go upstairs and
you feel a little bit winded, that's a good thing.
That means you're doing that vigorous intermittent activity that was
the official name for what they were tracking here, And
it's more beneficial if you are a woman than if
you are a man. But that doesn't mean that men

(04:05):
should avoid these chores. We have to do them too.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
But if you've got grandma's washboard, it seems like I can
be healthier. Just drag that stuff down to the stream and.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, laundry basket, so you know what one looks like.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
One of the things I often wondered, you know, why
do women have better cardiovask your lives than men do?
And it's probably this because, especially before we had all
of the conveniences that we have today, they were going
ninety miles an hour with their hair on fire, maybe
using a washboard. I still remember my grandma's wa washboard. Yeah,

(04:40):
and the ringer, washer and all those things. They were
in daily, continuous motion all the time during this sphace
vigorous activities. So it's one of the reasons why they
live longer. So think about your grandma and think about
how you can live longer.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Like cheated doctor Jim Applegate, former Family Physician of the
Year in the state of Michigan. Always great stuff, Thank you,
my pleasure.