Too Much Sitting Can Kill You….

Sitting for long hours can kill you… A recent study by Medical College of Wisconsin, US, warns us that sitting for long hours every day is associated with increased coronary artery calcification that can increase the risk of a heart attack. According to the research, each hour spent sitting, regardless of the time spent exercising, boosts the chance of a heart disease by 14 percent.  The results suggest that exercise may not entirely counteract the negative effects of a mostly sedentary lifestyle on coronary artery calcium.

No matter what our work or lifestyle demands we have to move on to live long….Our sedentary lifestyle include at least 8 hours of working in office and rest of time is spent watching TV and sitting in a car. Therefore so-called “sitting disease” is not a medical condition, but rather a lifestyle factor which accelerates early death and diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetics. Even for those who exercise regularly, sitting for long periods of time boosts our likelihood of declining health study says that the risk of poor health "is more pronounced at lower levels of physical activity than at higher levels." I.e. reduced inactivity leads to increased risk for metabolism-related diseases. It further warns that a daily session at the gym won't undo the damage because any increase in fitness from an hour’s exercise is overridden by several hours of sitting.

Coronary artery calcification leads to the formation of sticky plaques inside our arteries, causing narrowing and breaking off to cause heart attacks. Coronary artery calcification, measured through a non-invasive CT heart scan, indicates the amount of calcium contained in plaques within the heart's arteries. Analysing heart scans and physical activity records of more than 2,000 adults living in Dallas, the researchers found each hour of sedentary time per day on average was associated with a 14 percent increase in coronary artery calcification burden. This study offers a unique perspective on the effects of sedentary behaviour because it links sitting with an early marker for heart disease risk. 

Scientists from the Medical College of Wisconsin tracked levels of activity of 2,031 adults whose average age was 50.They compared the number of hours each participant spent sitting down each day with the levels of deposits in blood vessels that act as signal for heart disease. The study found that there is no association with coronary artery calcification and the amount of exercise a person gets, suggesting that too much sitting might have a greater impact than exercise on this particular measure of heart health. The research, titled “Sedentary behaviour is associated with coronary artery calcification in the Dallas heart study,” is set to be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego on March 15.

“It’s clear that exercise is important to reduce your cardiovascular risk and improve your fitness level,” said the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, US, Jacquelyn Kulinski.  “But this study suggests that reducing how much you sit every day may represent a more novel, companion strategy (in addition to exercise) to help reduce your cardiovascular risk,” Kulinski added.

From an evolutionary perspective, we were designed to move and engage in all manner of manual labour throughout the day, which was essential to our survival as a species. But a shift from this perspective, have metabolic and long-term health consequences… With prolonged periods of sitting, fewer skeletal muscle contractions may result in reduced lipoprotein lipase activity and clearance of triglycerides, reduced clearance of an oral glucose load, and less glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Furthermore being inactive for extended periods of time can result in high blood pressure, high cholesterol, more body fat, more fat in the blood and less HDL or good cholesterol. Larger waist circumference is another bonus…

Let Get up and Go be your motto for work time… Let Sit Less and Move More be our slogan. To reduce prolonged sitting following tips may be useful…

• Do stretching, turning and bending six or seven times between your works…Let all your  cramped muscles wake up, freshening you again…
•    Prefer a walk to your co-worker if you have anything to tell him
•   After lunch take time for a 1 hour walk.
•  Walk while on phone
•  Take a stand whenever you can… Standing uses more muscles and burns more calories than sitting.
•  Use stairs instead of elevators
•   If can, use a height adjustable desk so that you can work while standing or sitting.
•   Have standing or walking meetings or presentations

Exercise may be one of the best moves you can make in helping your heart live more… Regular exercise can help you to burn calories, to lower your blood pressure, to reduce LDL or bad cholesterol, to boost your HDL or good cholesterol. These include: - Walking, jogging, jumping rope, bicycling, skiing, skating, rowing, and aerobics or cardio classes. These strengthen your heart and lungs. Over time, aerobic exercise can help your blood pressure and improve your breathing. People need to get out of their chairs more frequently, both at work and at home. Just don’t be couch potatoes and lead a healthy life…..