A startling health breakthrough out of the UK should literally make us stand up and take notice. And, get moving. Could sitting too much be as bad for our health as smoking? There is an argument to be made based on shocking findings from this morsel of health news.
This indeed may be one of the most important health issues to arise in recent years. Sedentary behavior (a.k.a. sitting too much and not exercising) takes a devastating toll on the human body. This has been suggested for decades, but the new study published in the journal Diabetologia really puts it in perspective.
PLUS: Watch What Happens When You Stop Moving
Researchers pored through 18 separate studies that looked at the issue, comprising 800,000 participants. They compared the health and rates of disease between people who got the most activity, and who got the least.
Those who are the least active faced these sobering statistics:
— A higher risk of stroke and heart attack—by 147%
— A higher risk of type 2 diabetes—by 112%
— A greater chance of dying due to a heart problem—90%
— A higher likelihood of dying prematurely—50%.
We need to truly digest numbers like these. The average Joe Q. Public sits a lot each day, whether at work, at home, in social situations, or in the car. In truth, you spend somewhere around 60% of your entire life sitting. You also spend somewhere around 30% sleeping. Can you see how exercise only has a small window here?
The study goes behind being overweight or of moderate weight. It is solely about sedentary lives. You can have the perfect body, but if you sit most of the time and ignore fitness, you are quite simply not healthy. Exercise, which Doctors Health Press preaches about continuously, is essential for a healthy body, mind, lungs, muscles, joints…to everything, essentially.
To address the situation, we don’t need to start implementing huge exercise regimens. It starts by ensuring you get up and get moving at regular points throughout the day. Ideally, you get at least 30 minutes of actual exercise a day (a long walk, perhaps), but just getting it in your head to move as much as possible will ensure you do not live a sedentary existence.
Sources for Today’s Articles:
Are You Sitting Down for This? That’s Bad!
Wilmot, E. “Sedentary time in adults and the association with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death: systematic review and meta-analysis,” Diabetologia 2012; 55: 2,895-2,905.