Exercise Cannot Undo Health Hazards of Prolonged Sitting
If you think hitting the gym an hour every day would undo all the sitting, a new study shows you are wrong.
"Prolonged sedentary time was independently associated with deleterious health outcomes regardless of physical activity," researchers wrote in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine basing their findings on 47 studies of sitting, physical activity and mortality due to cardiovascular disease and cancer.
According to Reuters, the researchers found that regardless of the amount of daily workout a sedentary lifestyle where people were classified long-sitters, was associated with risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or cancer. The risk however was more pronounced in people who worked out less or did not work out at all. Type 2 diabetes is another concern in sedentary lifestyle.
LA Times reported that sedentary lifestyles carried a 90 percent risk of type 2 diabetes compared to healthier lifestyles.
"Avoiding sedentary time and getting regular exercise are both important for improving your health and survival. It is not good enough to exercise for 30 minutes a day and be sedentary for 23 and half hours," said Dr. David Alter, Senior Scientist, Toronto Rehab, University Health Network (UHN), and Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences told New York Daily News.
Experts thus recommend standing during TV commercials as it burns twice as many calories as sitting. They also recommended a 2 minute walk-break from prolonged sitting or when working with a computer, every half-hour. Monitoring sitting can help, and daily workout is essential.
