A new study revealed that most of the Americans engage in ‘sitting around’ not knowing that they are actually reducing their average life span. Even though researches reasoned out obesity or the level of daily physical activities by individuals involving a study of more than 120000 American adults, the effect remained unchanged.

According to Dr. Jay Brooks, Chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La., it can be considered as one more reason to “get up and walk”. He adds “The message here is like everything in your life. People need to recognize that the things you do every day have consequences. And if you’re in a job that does require sitting, that’s fine, but any time you can expend energy is good. That’s the key.”

Though the beneficial effects of exercise when obese have been well presented each time, the effects of sitting are not that well-studied. A study published online on July 22 in the American Journal of Epidemiology shows a link between effects of sitting and ‘total mortality’. Previously several studies threw light on the link between sitting time and obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart risk and unhealthy diets in children but not on total mortality.

This study involved analyzing responses from questionnaires by 123216 individuals without any history of disease and those participating in Cancer Prevention II study by American Cancer Society. These individuals were carefully studied from 1993 to 2006.

In the study, these individuals were at a higher risk of heart disease than cancer. Regulating various risk factors like body mass index and smoking, women who sat for 6 hours a day had a 37% increased risk of dying compared to those who sat for less than three hours a day. The increased risk was noted to be 17% in men.

The influence of sitting on death risk was found to be significant even if physical activities were accounted for. However, daily exercise did tend to decrease the mortality risk tied to sitting compared to those individuals who spent longer time sitting and were mostly inactive. The mortality risk in the latter was found to be 94% for women and 48% for men.

According to Dr. Alpa Patel, the lead author for the study, “the obvious reason for the connection is that the more time you spend sitting, the less total energy expended and you can have consequences such as weight gain and increased obesity. And that affects your metabolism as well as risk factors for various diseases”.

Source:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/heart/articles/2010/07/22/the-longer-you-sit-the-shorter-your-life-span-study.html

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by admin on 23. Jul, 2010 in Health News