Are you sitting as you read this? You may want to take a 'movement break' once you're through.
According to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, sitting for excessively long periods of time is a risk factor for early death.
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The study goes on to state that you need to get up every 30 minutes and move around if you want to cut your risk of death.
Scientists at the Columbia University claim that people who sit for an hour or two at a time without moving have a higher risk of premature death; as compared to people who sit for just as long but get up to move around in short bouts.
There's a direct relationship between the time spent sitting and the risk of early mortality of any cause, researchers said, based on a study of nearly 8,000 adults. As your total sitting time increases, so does your risk of an early death.
The positive news: People who sat for less than 30 minutes at a time had the lowest risk of early death.
"Sit less, move more" is what the American Heart Association encourages all of us to do. But this simplistic guideline doesn't quite cut it, said Keith Diaz, lead author of the new study and an associate research scientist in the Columbia University Department of Medicine
"This would be like telling someone to just 'exercise' without telling them how," Diaz wrote in an email.
Exercise guidelines are precise, he explained. For example, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adults do moderate-intensity aerobic exercise for two hours and 30 minutes every week, plus muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days a week.
"We need similar guidelines for sitting," said Diaz.
"We think a more specific guideline could read something like, 'For every 30 consecutive minutes of sitting, stand up and move/walk for five minutes at brisk pace to reduce the health risks from sitting,' " he said, adding the study "puts us a step closer to such guidelines," but more research is needed to verify the findings.
The research also found that:
- “There wasn't a threshold or cutoff where one's risk for death dramatically increased," said Diaz. “Those who sat for more than 13 hours per day had a 2-fold (or 200%) greater risk of death compared to those who sat for less than about 11 hours per day."
- "Bout duration is a little trickier," said Diaz. Still, he said, the study results indicate that those who frequently sat in stretches less than 30 minutes had a 55% lower risk of death compared to people who usually sat for more than 30 minutes at a stretch.
-People who frequently sat for more than 90 minutes at a stretch had a nearly two-fold greater risk of death than those who almost always sat for less than 90 minutes at a stretch, he said.
The study was not designed to reveal why sitting increases the risk of early death, noted Dr David A. Alter, an associate professor at the University of Toronto in Ontario, who described the study as "methodologically rigorous," and its findings "robust." He claims that:
-The underlying reasons 'unclear' of how sedentary behaviour impacts our health in negative ways is "unclear and complex," wrote Alter in an editorial published with the study.
-Alter, who did not contribute to Diaz' research, said some scientists theorize that more sitting leads to reductions in insulin sensitivity, while others believe net calorie expenditures decline as sitting increases.
The study's most important contribution involved disentangling two sedentary behaviours: total daily sedentary time and uninterrupted sedentary bout duration.
-"Persons with uninterrupted sedentary bouts of 30 minutes or more had the highest risk for death if total sedentary time also exceeded 12.5 hours per day," noted Alter.
By teasing out these two threads, the findings show excessive sitting is bad and even worse if it is accumulated in lengthy, uninterrupted bouts throughout the day, noted Alter.
Asked if, say, a standing desk might be helpful for those who work desk jobs, Diaz said, "there is limited evidence to suggest that standing is a healthier alternative to sitting."
"So if you have a job or lifestyle where you have to sit for prolonged periods, the best suggestion I can make is to take a movement break every half hour," said Diaz. "Our findings suggest this one behaviour change could reduce your risk of death."
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