Stand up - good for health
Baku, January 19 (AZERTAC). Standing up and moving more is good for your heart and your waistline. According to a new study published online in the European Heart Journal, increasing the number of times that you stand up from sitting, and move about, can be of benefit to your heart. Even if you only take a short break from sitting down - as little as a minute for instance - it can make a difference.
The study, carried out by scientists at the School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Australia, used data on 4,757 people, aged 20 and over. All had taken part in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2003 and 2006. It is the first study in a large multi-ethnic population to look at the link between the total amount of time spent sitting down, breaks from sitting down (standing up and moving about) and indicators of risk for heart disease, diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
We know that lack of exercise is bad news for our health, but the study found that even in those people who do get a reasonable amount of exercise, sitting for long periods was linked to a larger waist circumference. It is also linked to lower levels of the good, HDL, cholesterol, and higher levels of triglycerides (blood fats) and C-reactive protein (this rises when there`s inflammation in your body, which may mean you`re at risk of heart disease).
On the plus side, the research found that in people who spent a lot of their time sitting down, those who stood up often had smaller waists and lower levels of C-reactive protein.
The people who took part in the survey wore a small device (an accelerometer) on their right hip, during their waking hours, for seven days. This measured how much walking or running they did, and how intense the activity was. The survey also recorded their waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, C-reactive protein concentrations and a range of other measurements.
The lowest amount of sedentary time recorded was 1.8 hours a day, and the most was 21.2 hours a day, showing a great range from the most active person to the least active. The lowest number of breaks from sitting was 99 over the course of the seven days. The highest was 1,258.
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