Sitting for a long time really shortens your life! Authoritative research finds: Proper exercise can offset the risks of sitting for a long time

Sitting for long periods of time not only shortens your life

It can also cause many diseases

Today's office workers are jokingly called "sedentary people". They sit in front of computers or drive for long periods of time, and sit for at least 5 days a week. Sitting for a long time has become one of the most common lifestyles in today's society. However, sitting for a long time will have a negative impact on physical health. The World Health Organization has long listed sitting as one of the top ten causes of death and disease, second only to smoking.

A study published in eClinical Medicine analyzed data from 360,047 participants aged 37 to 73 in the UK Biobank, and evaluated the association between sedentary time and the risk of 45 non-communicable diseases. It was found that sedentary time was associated with a high risk of 12 diseases. The study found that compared with people who sat for ≤2 hours a day, people who sat for more than 6 hours a day had a 26.7% increased risk of 12 chronic diseases, including ischemic heart disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, thyroid disease, depression, migraine, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, and diverticular disease, which is equivalent to chronic suicide.

A study in Stroke showed that among people under 60 years old, those who sit for 8 hours a day and do not exercise have a 7 times higher risk of stroke than those who exercise at least 10 minutes a day and do not sit for long periods of time. The researchers tracked and analyzed the health information of 143,000 adults aged 40 and above with no history of stroke, with an average follow-up of 9.4 years. The results showed that 2,965 strokes occurred among these people, 90% of which were ischemic strokes.

For people who sit for a long time, increasing the amount of exercise has a positive effect on health and is also an important way to offset the harm of sitting for a long time. For people who sit for a long time, how often should they exercise? How long should they exercise at least every day?

Offsetting the risks of prolonged sitting

Exercise for at least 22 minutes a day

On October 24, 2023, researchers from the Arctic University of Norway published a research paper titled "Device-measured physical activity, sedentary time, and risk of all-cause mortality: an individual participant data analysis of four prospective cohort studies" in the BMJ subsidiary journal "British Journal of Sports Medicine".

The study involved an analysis of individual participant data from four prospective cohort studies, including 11,989 participants aged ≥50 years, of whom 50.5% were women. The participants' physical activity and sedentary time were collected to analyze whether exercise would change the association between sedentary time and mortality.

The study found that among participants with moderate to vigorous exercise <22 minutes, sedentary time was curvilinearly associated with mortality, with a 38% increased risk of death for those who sat for 12 hours compared with those who sat for 8 hours a day. However, when participants' moderate to vigorous exercise reached or exceeded 22 minutes, there was no difference in the risk of death between those who sat for 8 hours a day and those who sat for 12 hours a day.

Studies have shown that sitting for long periods of time increases the risk of death, while higher levels of moderate to vigorous exercise reduce the risk of death caused by sitting for long periods of time. 22 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day is enough to offset the increased risk of death caused by sitting for one day.

Every 30 minutes of sitting, get up and walk for 5 minutes

Can reduce some damage

Another study revealed when it is better to exercise during periods of prolonged sitting.

In January this year, a study titled "Breaking Up Prolonged Sitting to Improve Cardiometabolic Risk: Dose-Response Analysis of a Randomized Cross-Over Trial" published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise confirmed that walking for 5 minutes after every 30 minutes of sitting can reduce some damage.

The trial was a randomized crossover study in which 11 participants completed the trial over different 5-day periods: 8 hours of continuous sitting, 1 minute of standing up and moving after every 0.5 hour of sitting, 5 minutes of standing up and moving after every 0.5 hour of sitting, 1 minute of standing up and moving after every 1 hour of sitting, and 5 minutes of standing up and moving after every 1 hour of sitting. During the trial, participants were required to measure their blood sugar every 5 minutes and their blood pressure every 60 minutes.

The results showed that compared with sitting still for 8 hours a day, starting to move for 5 minutes after sitting for 0.5 hours can reduce the peak blood sugar level after eating by nearly 60%. If the frequency of getting up is too low (at least once an hour) or the time of getting up and walking is too short (1 minute each time), it will not significantly reduce blood sugar.

However, even if the time of getting up and walking around is not that long and the frequency is not that high, just interrupting long periods of sitting can improve blood pressure. Compared with sitting all day, blood pressure can be reduced by about 5% whether it is getting up and walking for 5 minutes every 0.5 hours or moving for 1 minute every hour. In addition, the researchers also regularly measured the participants' mood, fatigue, and cognitive performance levels during the experiment. The results showed that in addition to getting up and moving for 1 minute every hour, other options can also significantly reduce fatigue and improve mood.

Therefore, during work, get up and walk around twice after every 30 minutes of work. This can not only improve your physical health, but also cheer you up.

Source | Kangxun.com