I recently started wearing watch, which, among other things, makes me get up and walk around every hour. At first it annoyed me a little, because instead of the expected letter or message, I saw this useless (as it seemed to me) reminder.
Last week I read an article about how just a few minutes of walking every hour can dramatically improve our chances of being healthy and living longer. Now I try not to ignore the calls of my new watch :))
As you know, a sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, obesity, kidney problems, creates the risk of premature death and a host of other problems. These risks remain elevated, even if a person is actively involved in sports, but at the same time spends most of his time in a work chair. For example, scientists say that every hour overweight adults spend in front of the TV increases their risk of developing diabetes by 3,4%.
What will help us to reduce our sitting time during the day? The results of a new study published in the publication Diabetologiashowed: leaving the comfy chair every hour just for a few minutes, we can significantly reduce the harm from a sedentary lifestyle.
Researchers at the University of Utah at Salt Lake City and elsewhere turned to a huge body of data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey. This annual survey of Americans is conducted to find out what they eat, how often they exercise, what health problems they experience, and how their lifestyles are generally organized.
Recently, in the process of collecting data, some participants began to wear monitors that allow them to objectively trace their paths of movement. Scientists collected monitoring data on 3 adult men and women, most of whom reported that they had no health problems at the beginning of the study period.
Using standard methods of measuring activity, the researchers determined how many minutes each day each participant spends sitting; is in a state of activity of low intensity; performs loads of light intensity, such as moving around the room; performs moderate intensity activities, such as jogging.
Most spent most of the day sitting.
The researchers then checked the mortality data among the participants for three or four years after the survey.
They used the numbers obtained to statistically determine what the participants’ overall risk of premature death was; how sedentary lifestyles played a role in these risks; what is the meaning of the activities that the participants did instead of sitting.
In other words, the researchers wanted to understand whether walking or jogging in between sitting in a chair affects life expectancy.
The findings were unexpected. Low-intensity exercise, such as standing up, has little effect on mortality risk by itself. Participants in the study who spent a few minutes each hour in such sedentary activity reduced their risk of death only marginally compared to those who sat more.
But for those who, only for two minutes per hour, got up from their chair to walk, risk of premature death decreased by about 33%, compared to people who sat with almost no breaks.
This reduction in mortality risk is most likely due to energy balance, suggests Dr. Srinivasan Beddhu, a professor of medicine at the University of Utah who led the study. The chain is something like this: when we take a walk, instead of just sitting, the number of calories burned increases, potentially contributing to weight loss and other metabolic changes, which then affect the risk of death.
Because this study is observational, the results do not prove that walking that displaces sitting on a chair directly reduces the risk of mortality. We can only say that there is a connection.
However, the potential benefits of moving around the office often seem tempting and the risks are small.