Sitting Disease: Moving Your Way to a Healthier Heart – Yahoo News

By | September 15, 2015

As a preventive cardiologist, Dr. Erin Michos knows the importance of exercise. As a marathon runner, she practices what she preaches.So imagine her surprise when Dr. Michos realized she is a victim of “sitting disease,” a revelation she had after donning an activity tracker.”I run an hour a day, but I was shocked to see how few steps I took in the other 23 hours,” she says.Having a step-tracking device opened Dr. Michos’ eyes and helped motivate her to move more during the day. “Now I’m accountable.”Dr. Michos and fellow Johns Hopkins cardiologist and runner Dr. Roberta Florido outline strategies to combat sitting disease, a modern-day malady that fuels the risk of heart disease and other ailments even among those who exercise regularly.What is “Sitting” Disease?You hit the treadmill regularly. You go the gym five times a week. You get enough exercise, right? Not necessarily. Turns out, even a daily jog in the park won’t cancel out the ill effects of sitting for hours on end.The notion that being sedentary over prolonged periods is unhealthy is neither new nor surprising. What is new — and quite disillusioning to those who work out regularly — is that daily exercise is by itself not enough to make up for all those hours sitting at a desk.Indeed, mounting evidence suggests that those who spend hours with little movement are at higher risk for developing blood clots, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and a constellation of other maladies fueled by insufficient physical activity.But How Can I Be Sedentary if I Exercise Every Day?The word sedentary comes from the Latin “sedere,” which means “to sit.” Sitting may be the most prevalent form of sedentary behavior, but it is by no means the only one. Any prolonged activity that requires you to use very little energy is a form of sedentary behavior.Exercise physiologists use a number called MET to capture how much energy one uses during specific activities. MET, which stands for metabolic equivalent of task, is the basic unit of energy use. One MET refers to our resting metabolic rate, or baseline. Moderate walking equals 3 to 4 METs, while running equals about 8 METs. Sedentary activities generally expend no more than 1.5 METs.Current guidelines from the American Heart Association call for 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week, or about 30 minutes of exercise five times a week. But these guidelines fail to address energy expenditure during the rest of the day. Assuming the average adults spends 16 hours a day awake, 30 minutes of exercise a day constitute a paltry 3 percent spent actively. An exercise routine that adds up to 150 minutes a week translates to 2 percent of active time. It should come as no surprise that the 97 percent of time most adults spend in a low-activity state affect their physical well-being.The Dangers of Sedentary LifeThere is growing evidence linking sedentary behavior with poor health.Absence of muscle contraction during long, uninterrupted stretches of inactivity can unlock a cascade of negative biochemical reactions. Research shows that the bodies of sedentary people are not as good at breaking down blood sugar and cholesterol, chief culprits in diabetes, heart attacks and strokes. People who spend more time sitting have higher levels of blood sugar and disease-fueling fats called triglycerides, as well as lower levels of heart-protective HDL cholesterol, or “good” cholesterol. Sitting for too long has also been shown to increase the amount of calcium and fatty buildup inside the heart’s arteries — a leading cause of heart attacks and strokes.A 2003 study of more than 50,000 women followed over six years found that each two-hour increase in daily TV viewing led to a 23 percent jump in obesity. For every two additional hours a day that women spent sitting at work, their obesity risk jumped by 5 percent. Sedentary behavior also increased the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 14 percent.Another disturbing finding: A newly published review of 47 studies reveals that regardless of exercise, people who spend more time inactive had notably higher risk not only for diabetes and heart disease but also for cancer. They were also more likely to die prematurely! And although more physically active people fared better overall, they were far from immune to the negative effects of sedentary behavior.But wait! There is some good news. Before you give up on exercise thinking “Why even bother!” consider this: Adding two minutes of light activity to every hour you spend sitting can lower your risk of dying by one-third, according to a 2015 study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.Simple Ways to Infuse More Activity into Your DayCount your steps. Monitoring how many steps you take can be a great motivator to get up and move. You don’t need a fancy activity tracker with a gazillion functions. A simple pedometer will do. Aim for at least 5,000 steps daily, although 10,000 or more is ideal.Sit less, move often. Here’s the re

Source: Sitting Disease: Moving Your Way to a Healthier Heart – Yahoo News