The word “trampoline” might not sound like much, but it has the power to clean your mind and body.
According to a new study, people who use trampolines are far more likely to breathe cleaner air and reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, surveyed more than 3,000 adults ages 18 to 64 and found that people who spent at least 20 minutes a day playing trampOLines were 50 percent less likely to suffer from heart disease, according to the study, published online this week in the journal PLOS ONE.
That’s because playing trampsOLines helps you think about the bigger picture of what it means to be human, said lead author Dr. David M. Dolan, an associate professor of epidemiology at the UCLA.
“The fact that we were able to demonstrate that it could be a very powerful intervention in reducing the risk of death, stroke, heart disease is truly impressive,” Dolan told The Huffington Post.
“I’m always amazed that this has been such a slow-moving research topic, but the findings of this study are very encouraging.”
The study, which also included researchers from UCLA and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, was a collaboration between the UC LA Center for Environmental Health and the Institute for Human Research at the National Institutes of Health.
TrampOLine, a popular device popularized in California, uses a small rubber ball that’s attached to a string that runs through the wearer’s legs and arms, then loops back around the neck.
After a few minutes, the string can be removed, and the ball can be reinserted into the wearer.
A special sensor attached to the end of the string detects how long it took for the string to reach the neck, and if the wearer moves their head while the ball is inside their body, they can detect their breath.
The researchers tested participants who used trampoles in their homes for five days and found they were 60 percent less prone to developing heart disease than those who did not play tramps, according a press release from the UC UCLA Center for Environment Health.
The findings also showed that trampools can reduce the risk for heart disease in the short term, by as much as 50 percent, the researchers said.
“TrampOLiples can help us understand what is going on in the human body that may cause heart disease or other diseases, and how they could be prevented,” Dolicos said.
But for the long term, the research team also hopes that the devices will have a positive impact on reducing pollution and other environmental issues.
“We have a responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to our planet to make it safer to play trampOOL,” said study co-author Jennifer A. Zuber, a UCLA doctoral student in epidemiology and an assistant professor of public health at the university.
“This is just a tool for us to make sure that we are doing our part to help reduce the impact of pollution on our health and our planet.”