Even With Regular Exercise, Excessive Sitting Has Associated Health Risks

People who spend large amounts of time sitting have increased health risks, even if they meet the current guidelines for physical activity of 150 minutes per week, according to new research.

“This is becoming an increasingly important topic given the shift in many occupations to long hours of sitting, coupled with people spending a considerable amount of time sitting during their leisure time, as well,” said study lead author Peter T. Katzmarzyk, PhD, FACSM, FAHA, associate executive director for population and public health sciences at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “There is some evidence that the effects of sitting can be wiped out by large amounts of exercise, such as 1 to 2 hours per day. But for most inactive people, the effects of sitting on their health is rather strong.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
Study Details the Effect of Exercise of Diabetes Risk
How Much Exercise is Required to Lower Chronic Disease Risk?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Several cohort studies have shown consistent results demonstrating positive associations between the amount of time spent sitting or viewing television and several health outcomes, such as incident type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and premature all-cause mortality.

Primary care providers play an important role in helping their patients avoid sedentary behavior and increasing their physical activity levels, he said. “Primary care remains the cornerstone of health care, and it is a regular point of contact for most patients.”

Dr Katzmarzyk will continue to explore the dose-response associations between sitting and health.

“We also need to better understand the underlying biological mechanisms whereby sitting confers increased risk of mortality,” he said.

—Mike Bederka

Reference:

Katzmarzyk P. Epidemiology of sedentary behavior. Presented at: American Physiological Society Intersociety Meeting: The Integrative Biology of Exercise VII; November 4, 2016; Phoenix, AZ. Abstract 6.1. http://www.the-aps.org/mm/Conferences/APS-Conferences/2016-Conferences/Exercise/Official-Meeting-Program-Book.pdf. Accessed November 4, 2016.