There has been a growing awareness of how important exercise is to maintain good overall health in body and mind. Not only is it important to keep moving to stay healthy, it's also important not to sit too much. The University of Health Network reported via Newswise on Jan. 19, 2015, sitting for extended periods of time increases your risk of disease and death regardless of exercise.
According to a new review study the amount of time which a person sits during the course of a day is associated with an increased risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and death regardless of regular exercise. Greater than half of an average person's day is generally spent being sedentary doing things such as sitting, watching television, or working at a computer. Dr. David Alter, senior scientist at Toronto Rehab, University Health Network (UHN), says this study shows that despite the health-enhancing benefits of physical activity exercise by itself may not be enough to lower the risk for disease.
However, the study authors found that the negative effects of sitting time on health are more pronounced in those people who do little or no exercise than among those people who engage in higher amounts of exercise. The lead author Avi Biswas, PhD candidate, Toronto Rehab, UHN and the Institute of Health Policy, says these findings have suggested that
the health risk of sitting too much is not as pronounced when there is an increase in physical activity.
Dr. Alter has stressed that it is vitally important to avoiding too much sedentary time and get regular exercise in order to improve your health and survival. It's not a very good idea to simply exercise for 30 minutes a day and than to remain sedentary for the remainder of the day. It's a good idea to always be searching for ways to incorporate more physical activity and less time sitting into your life.
This study has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The magnitude, consistency, and manner of association which exists between sedentary time and outcomes independent of physical activity has not been clear. The researchers had a goal of quantifying the association which is seen between sedentary time and hospitalizations, all-cause mortality, and cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes in adults which is independent of physical activity.
It has been concluded that sedentary time was independently associated with harmful health outcomes regardless of physical activity. The bottom line is you shouldn't sit around too much and you should try to exercise more if you want to really be healthy and live longer.
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