Consider this: from the moment you wake up, you spend most of your time sitting. You sit on the toilet, at the breakfast table, in the car or bus, at your desk, and finally on the couch watching TV. When you add up all of this sedentary time, it amounts to hours and hours every day. The scary part? New research shows that prolonged sitting is linked to heart disease and an increased risk of early death.
Heart disease: a major issue
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, coming in many forms, including high blood pressure, stroke, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease. Even if you exercise regularly, sitting for long periods still increases your risk of heart disease. Some alarming statistics from the Heart Foundation:
- Heart disease was the cause of nearly 787,000 American deaths in 2011.
- Cardiovascular diseases claim more lives than all forms of cancer combined.
- Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, killing nearly 380,000 people annually.
- In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 34 seconds. Every 60 seconds, someone in the United States dies from a heart disease-related event.
- While 1 in 31 American women dies from breast cancer each year, 1 in 3 dies of heart disease.
- Direct and indirect costs of heart disease total more than $320.1 billion. That includes health expenditures and lost productivity.
New study quantifies sitting risk
While previous studies have shown a link between being sedentary and risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), no study had quantified the time/risk factor until now. A study published in the July 13 edition of JAMA Cardiology aimed to determine the categorical and quantitative dose-response association between sedentary time and CVD risk.
By grouping study participants into low, medium, and high levels of sedentary time, the researchers found that low levels of sedentary time (around 2.5 hours/day) were not associated with CVD risk. Medium levels of sedentary time (around 7.5 hours/day) also found no direct link to CVD risk. However, high levels of sedentary time (12.5 hours/day) were directly related to increased CVD risk and events. According to researchers, “increased risk observed for more than 10 hours of sedentary time per day.”
Changing behaviors for better health
Many lifestyle problems, including sedentary behavior, can be improved by making different choices for how we spend our day. Changing our behaviors can positively impact our physiology and reduce our risk of heart disease and early death. According to the study, staying seated for more than 10 hours per day puts your heart and your life at risk.
To reduce your sedentary time, consider implementing the following strategies:
- Take public transportation and stand or walk
- Use a standing workstation instead of sitting at a desk
- Stand up and pace while thinking or during phone calls
- Get up every hour and walk around the room
- Exercise while watching TV, such as using a treadmill, instead of sitting on a couch
You can also choose different after-work activities, like walking, biking, strength training, yoga, martial arts, badminton, tennis, or playing with your kids or pets. Even playing a musical instrument that requires standing (e.g., guitar, saxophone) can help.
In conclusion, maintaining good health involves not only staying physically active but also reducing the risk of diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. These diseases can often be caused by our lifestyle choices, so it’s crucial to not only increase activity but also decrease sedentary time. Being more active supports heart health, bone density, muscle elasticity, balance, coordination, and overall quality of life.
