We have some unfortunate news. Are you sitting? Probably shouldn’t…
A new cross-sectional meta-study by an international team of researchers ranks the most common movements and postures we perform every day in order of their benefit to the heart.
In short, almost anything you do will get better results than sitting all day. You can even skip it and go to work early.
Far from suggesting we should ditch our office chairs for comfortable recliners, this study supports the advice that even small changes in activity can greatly improve cardiovascular health. Masu. As it happens, good sleep habits are slightly better than sitting all night binge-watching the latest crime documentary on Netflix.
“The big takeaway from our study is that even small changes in the way you move can have positive effects on heart health, but the intensity of your movements is important.” To tell Joe Blodgett, an epidemiologist at University College London, is the study’s lead author.
“The most beneficial change we observed was replacing sitting with moderate to vigorous activity (running, brisk walks, climbing stairs, etc.) Any activity that increases your heart rate and makes you breathe faster, even for minutes.” ”
Cardiovascular disease now claims to be our number one cause of death. Almost 18 million people die every year It occurs in the form of heart attacks, strokes, and other diseases involving the heart and blood vessels.
Several The body tends to Modern lifestyles around the world certainly do not make our hearts work better, and lack of exercise, poor diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption are significant risk factors, until the dangerous ticker appears. I am.
Eating healthy, quitting smoking, and limiting the amount of wine you drink each night are good starts, but daily commutes to mentally taxing office jobs mean that many people spend most of their day sitting. It’s very easy to stay in that position.
To better understand the relationship between different types of movement, the researchers combined data from six studies with more than 15,000 participants to improve sedentary behavior, standing, light and The study provided insight into the effects of moderate to vigorous activity and sleep on various measures of heart health.
No one should be shocked by now, but sitting all day is virtually the worst thing you can do for measuring your cardiovascular health, including your body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, cholesterol, and weight. is. glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), a marker for type 2 diabetes.
However, no major changes are required to improve these statistics. For example, for a 54-year-old woman with a BMI of 26.5, even just 30 minutes a day of replacing her office chair with a standing desk from time to time could reduce her BMI by 2.4. . percent.
If you fill those 30 minutes with a brisk walk that gets your pulse pumping, you’ll see your waist measurement decrease by about 2.5 centimeters and your HbA1c by about 3.6%.
It turns out that redistributing time spent sleeping, standing, and sitting to light or moderately intense physical activity has significant benefits for cardiovascular health.
On the other hand, if your options are limited to sitting on the couch watching one more episode of Black Mirror or getting a good night’s rest, you need to prioritize sleep.
Similar to previous studies linking heart health to proper sleep schedules, the data reflects small but significant improvements in heart health. high density lipoprotein (“good” cholesterol) if you replace about an hour and a half of sitting with sleep.
In an ideal world, we’d all skip work meetings and go for a long hike, swim, or bike ride, then come home and have a long night’s sleep.
But even in an imperfect world, we can choose to stand on the train, take the stairs, or turn off the lights a little earlier at night in the name of giving our hearts a little more life. .
This study european heart journal.