Too much sitting — even if you do some exercising — can still be bad for the health, the American Heart Association (AHA) warns.
The cardiologists’ group says that far too many people are spending their time sitting on chairs and sofas, in general, Fox News reports.
Deborah Rohm Young, chairperson of the AHA panel that came up with the advisory, says that they found that “U.S. adults are sedentary for about six to eight hours a day.”
It gets worse as people grow older, with adults 60 years and up spending from 8.5 to 9.6 hours a day in sedentary positions. Young is the director of behavioral research at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California.
Dr. Barbara George, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Lifestyle Medicine at Winthrop-University Hospital, says all studies linking heart conditions to sedentary lifestyles indicate that people need to move more throughout the day, above and beyond the recommended 30 minutes of daily activity. Moving is necessary to combat high risks for heart disease and other killer diseases, she says. Her advice is,
Don’t be a ‘sitting duck for cardiovascular disease’ — move more, sit less.
The AHA says its new statement means there is growing proof that exercise, on its own, is not enough to counter the unhealthy effects of too much sitting. “Regardless of how much physical activity someone gets, prolonged sedentary time could negatively impact the health of your heart and blood vessels,” Young says.
Staying inactive all the time has an effect on more than just heart disease risks, too. The AHA says a heightened risk for diabetes, abnormal insulin sensitivity and increased chances of dying, in general, may all be caused by too much sitting and not enough moving.
Young adds that there are many factors involved in sedentary behavior, much of which scientists need to study more. But so far, all things point to the advice to sit less, move more.
According to the AHA, people should try getting at least 30 minutes of moderate to intense exercise each day to complete the recommended 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of intense exercise per week. This is a healthier practice than cramming the recommended exercise time in one or two days.
George offers some helpful tips to minimize the health dangers sitting may cause, such as: take a one- to three-minute break every half-hour to stand or walk around a bit, stand on public transportation, walk while talking on the phone, stand or exercise while watching television, use an alarm to get up from the work desk every two hours, and gradually reduce sitting time by 15 to 20 minutes daily.
Forbes has a list of desk exercises for those bound indoors for the bulk of the day, too.
The AHA statement was published in Circulation.
