Is walking enough? Science finds how to undo health risks of sitting all day

A brief stroll each half hour can assist reverse the well being harm related to lengthy durations of sitting, in response to a brand new examine.

Mounting proof means that sitting for lengthy durations – an inescapable actuality for a lot of staff – is hazardous to well being, even for individuals who train often.

Within the new examine, volunteers who bought up and walked for 5 minutes each half hour had decrease blood sugar and blood stress than those that sat on a regular basis. In accordance with the small examine revealed in Medication & Science in Sports activities & Train, researchers additionally discovered that strolling one minute per hour helped with blood stress, however not blood sugar.

“In case you have a job that requires you to sit down many of the day or have a largely sedentary life-style, this can be a technique that might enhance your well being and offset the well being harm related to sitting” stated the examine’s lead writer, Keith Diaz, an affiliate professor of behavioral drugs at Columbia College’s Vagelos School of Physicians and Surgeons.

It is unclear why sitting for lengthy durations with out a break is dangerous to your well being, however Diaz suspects that at the very least a part of the reason is that whereas we’re sitting we’re not utilizing our leg muscle mass. .

“Muscle groups function vital regulators of blood sugar,” he stated. “If we do not use them, issues do not work correctly.”

With regards to blood stress, shifting round helps enhance circulation, Diaz stated. “If you sit, blood swimming pools in your legs,” he added. “If you often activate the leg muscle mass, it helps restore common blood move.”

‘Exercise snacks’ each half-hour

To search out one of the simplest ways to fight the deleterious results of sitting, Diaz and his workforce examined 4 completely different “exercise snacks” on 11 volunteers: one minute of strolling each half-hour whereas seated, one minute after 60 minutes in a seated place, 5 minutes after half-hour in a seated place and 5 minutes after 60 minutes in a seated place. The consequences of every of those methods had been in comparison with these of sitting with out a break.

Every of the 11 grownup volunteers got here to the researchers’ lab the place they sat in an ergonomic chair for eight hours, getting up just for a restroom break and any exercise snacks they had been instructed to carry out. All 11 adopted every of the methods, one by one, together with an eight-hour interval throughout which they solely bought up for lavatory breaks.

Blood stress and blood sugar had been measured throughout every section of the examine. The technique that labored greatest was to stroll 5 minutes for half-hour in a seated place. This technique additionally had a dramatic impact on how the volunteers’ our bodies responded to massive meals, producing a 58% discount in blood stress spikes in comparison with sitting all day.

All strolling methods resulted in a big 4-5 level discount in blood stress, in comparison with sitting nonetheless each eight hours. Every kind of exercise snack, apart from a one-minute stroll each hour, additionally resulted in a big lower in fatigue and an enchancment in temper.

The examine proves strolling helps, Diaz stated, although he suspects some managers may frown on the considered staff strolling away from their desks.

“The following massive massive step for us is to vary the office tradition,” he stated.

How you can take a stroll break at work

“You may stroll to a colleague’s desk somewhat than ship an electronic mail,” he instructed. “For those who’re on the telephone, you could possibly stroll. You may deliver a small bottle of water to work, so it’s a must to stand up to fill it.”

Though the methods instructed within the new examine aren’t an alternative to common train, they can assist cut back the harms of extended sitting, stated Dr. Ron Blankstein, preventive heart specialist at Brigham and Girls’s Hospital and professor of medication at Harvard Medical Faculty.

“We all know there’s a variety of hurt in sitting nonetheless,” he stated. “If you do it with out a break, your blood stress goes up and there are elevations in blood sugar.”

Do standing desks assist?

Whereas standing desks have turn out to be an enormous factor, Diaz would not advocate them.

“The science on standing desks remains to be largely combined,” he added. “And there may be proof that they might probably be dangerous to your again and the blood vessels in your legs.”

Blankstein famous that “being in the identical place all day, whether or not standing or sitting, isn’t good.”

The outcomes of the brand new examine make sense, stated Dr. Doris Chan, generalist and interventional heart specialist at NYU Langone Well being.

“I am actually glad this got here out,” she stated. “This could possibly be the beginning of one thing revolutionary. We simply want larger research with extra individuals. Nevertheless it’s like a seed that has been planted. This opens the doorways to all types of different analysis.

Getting up and strolling each half hour may produce other advantages, reminiscent of loosening joints which have stiffened after lengthy durations of sitting, Chan stated.

“I hope employers will take discover of this examine and take to coronary heart that they need to enable their workers to take breaks to stretch and transfer,” she stated. “It would even enhance workflow.”