Sitting At Your Desk All Day Can Increase Your Risk Of Developing Heart Disease Even If You Work Out Regularly
We all know that too much sitting is harmful to our health, but exercising in our spare time is thought to counter those negative effects.
However, a new study has found that sitting at your desk all day can increase your risk of developing heart disease even if you work out regularly.
If you spend more than 10 and a half hours per day sitting or lying down, regular exercise might not be enough to prevent serious heart issues.
“Our findings really emphasize the importance of avoiding excess sitting…whether or not you’re physically active,” said Dr. Ezim Ajufo, the first study author and a cardiology fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The study included a large sample size of almost 90,000 people with an average age of 62. For a week, the participants wore an accelerometer.
Researchers compared their sedentary and active time with diagnoses of conditions like heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.
Higher sedentary time was associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease. Individuals who did not exercise regularly faced poorer heart health, but even people who got in 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per week still showed health consequences.
The data also revealed a general guideline for how much sitting should be considered too much. The researchers recommend that people avoid sitting for more than 10.6 hours per day.
Those who sat for at least 10.6 hours a day had a 40 percent higher risk of heart failure and a 54 percent increased risk of cardiovascular mortality than individuals who sat for less time.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
People who sat for 10.6 hours or more but met exercise recommendations were 15 percent more likely to suffer from heart failure and 33 percent more likely to die from a cardiovascular-related issue compared to those who sat less.
It appears that physical activity cannot offset all the downsides of sitting. There are some limitations to the study, though.
For one, the sample consisted mainly of people who were White and of European ancestry, so it is not an accurate representation of the total population in the United States.
Furthermore, the study was observational, meaning that the collective data was not enough to prove that sitting was the cause of heart disease, but it was able to suggest a link between the two.
If you sit in an office for most of the day, all that sitting can add up pretty quickly. You can try to increase your level of movement by getting a bike or treadmill desk. It’s also recommended to walk around for just a few minutes every 30 minutes to an hour after completing a task.
Even though an intense workout at the end of the day won’t necessarily make up for long periods of sitting, it’s still better for your health to engage in exercise regularly. Exercise will always be beneficial.
The research was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
More About:News
Read This Next
