【NewsQuest=Reporter Kim Hyeong-geun】 Sitting for long periods of time is linked to so many negative health conditions, such as heart health, diabetes, weight gain, dementia, and several cancers.
And even if you exercise regularly, there are many points out that sitting or sitting for a long time can cause great damage to your health.
Recently, studies warning of sedentary behavior of modern people who lead a sedentary life are pouring out. This means that you spend most of your life in a sitting or lying position.
In other words, it is a lifestyle in which you are physically inactive and rarely exercise.
People with this style sit or lie down most of the day while engaging in activities such as watching TV, playing video games, reading, or using a cell phone or computer.
Increased risk of various diseases and premature death
This lifestyle contributes to many preventable causes of death as well as disease as well as quality of health.
Studies have shown that people sit for an average of 4.7 to 6.5 hours per day, and this average increases every year. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 25.3% of US adults do not engage in physical activity at all.
A sedentary lifestyle is defined as “expending less than 1.5 calories while awake in a sitting or lying position.”
Canadian Miranda Esmonde White, a former ballerina and well-known fitness trainer, defines a sedentary lifestyle as “sitting more than six hours a day.”
Despite the urgency of giving answers to people with sedentary jobs, it is still unclear how much more movement and how much less sitting is required to prevent these health risks.
Exercise physiologists at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center have discovered a potential solution.
These experts report that just 5 minutes of walking for every 30 minutes of sitting can offset the most detrimental effects.
The study, led by Dr. Keith Diaz, is the first to investigate more than two or three potential activities to alleviate prolonged sitting.
The best solution is “a 5 minute walk every 30 minutes”
The research team tested five scenarios.
First of all, ▲ walk for 1 minute every 30 minutes, ▲ walk for 1 minute every 60 minutes, ▲ walk for 5 minutes every 30 minutes, ▲ walk for 5 minutes every 60 minutes, and ▲ do not walk at all.
“If we hadn’t compared different options and varied the frequency and duration of exercise, we might have only given people our best guesses regarding the optimal routine,” said Dr. Diaz.
In conclusion, the research team found that the most effective solution was to walk for 5 minutes every 30 minutes. They pointed out that this is the only amount of exercise that significantly lowers blood sugar and blood pressure.
For example, a 5-minute walk every 30 minutes was found to help participants regulate their responses to the meals they ate.
This was found to reduce blood sugar spikes by 58% following eating, compared to sitting for a long time.
Walking, even with a small amount of exercise, was more effective in lowering blood pressure than sitting still all day.
“This is a significant blood pressure reduction comparable to what you would get from exercising daily for six months,” said Dr. Diaz.
Additionally, walking for any amount of exercise (except for one minute every hour) was associated with significant mood improvement and reduced fatigue.
“The effect on mood and fatigue is important because when people feel good, they tend to repeat those behaviors,” said Dr. Diaz.
The research team is now testing 25 different amounts of walking scenarios with a wider variety of participants, he said, continuing the study.
“What we now know is that in addition to regular exercise every day, we need to get regular movement at work for optimal health,” said Dr. Diaz.
“It may sound surreal, but our findings show that even a small amount of walking while working can significantly lower your risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases,” Diaz added.
This study was published in a recent issue of the journal ‘Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise’.
