"Sitting is the new smoking." It is unlikely that very many outside the health and fitness community have heard this. Just what do they mean by that? Sitting is the new smoking means that for even regular exercisers, prolonged sitting has the same negative effect on health as smoking. You are what has been called an "active couch potato - Genevieve Healy, University of Queensland - and are only slightly, if any, less susceptible to the same health risks as those who are completely inactive.
"Your body is designed to move," Hamilton (Marc Hamilton, Ph.D., Pennington Biomedical Research Center.) says. "Sitting for an extended period of time causes your body to shut down at the metabolic level." When your muscles, especially certain leg muscles, are immobile, your circulation slows. So you use less of your blood sugar and you burn less fat, which increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Indeed, a study of 3,757 women found that for every two hours they sat in a given work day, their risk for developing diabetes went up seven percent, which means their risk is 56 percent higher on days they sit for eight hours. And a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology reports that a man who sits more than six hours a day has an 18 percent increased risk of dying from heart disease and a 7.8 percent increased chance of dying from diabetes compared with someone who sits for three hours or less a day.
Just how bad is it? If saying it is equivalent to being a smoker doesn't get your attention consider that Koster et al. measured sedentary time in 1906 subjects and found that after adjusting for MVPA the highest 25% of time spent in sedentary activity had 3.3 times the risk for all-cause mortality compared to those in the lowest 25%. Or, in very simple but accurate enough language, too much sitting, after making you ill, will kill you.
Assuming none of us are particularly fascinated with that prospect, the question is: What do we do? Studies have shown that 30 minutes of exercise daily has tremendous health benefits but that this alone will not reverse the negative effects of prolonged sitting. So, what is the answer? The answer is as simple as it is difficult; i.e. move. We have to move. We have to break up our sitting time. Research indicates that a minimum of 2 minutes walking, walking in place, will activate key muscles in the leg and avoid the the repercussions of prolonged sitting. The bonus to employers is that their employees are healthier, happier, more productive and take less sick time.
"Your body is designed to move," Hamilton (Marc Hamilton, Ph.D., Pennington Biomedical Research Center.) says. "Sitting for an extended period of time causes your body to shut down at the metabolic level." When your muscles, especially certain leg muscles, are immobile, your circulation slows. So you use less of your blood sugar and you burn less fat, which increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Indeed, a study of 3,757 women found that for every two hours they sat in a given work day, their risk for developing diabetes went up seven percent, which means their risk is 56 percent higher on days they sit for eight hours. And a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology reports that a man who sits more than six hours a day has an 18 percent increased risk of dying from heart disease and a 7.8 percent increased chance of dying from diabetes compared with someone who sits for three hours or less a day.
Just how bad is it? If saying it is equivalent to being a smoker doesn't get your attention consider that Koster et al. measured sedentary time in 1906 subjects and found that after adjusting for MVPA the highest 25% of time spent in sedentary activity had 3.3 times the risk for all-cause mortality compared to those in the lowest 25%. Or, in very simple but accurate enough language, too much sitting, after making you ill, will kill you.
Assuming none of us are particularly fascinated with that prospect, the question is: What do we do? Studies have shown that 30 minutes of exercise daily has tremendous health benefits but that this alone will not reverse the negative effects of prolonged sitting. So, what is the answer? The answer is as simple as it is difficult; i.e. move. We have to move. We have to break up our sitting time. Research indicates that a minimum of 2 minutes walking, walking in place, will activate key muscles in the leg and avoid the the repercussions of prolonged sitting. The bonus to employers is that their employees are healthier, happier, more productive and take less sick time.
