Gaby
Modern technology has reduced both the need and the urge to move. Many people spend a significant portion of their day sitting, whether at work in front of a computer or at home in front of the television.
Daniel Bailey, a physical education and health expert at Brunel University in the UK, points out that the human body is designed for movement. Prolonged sitting takes a heavy toll on our health. Meanwhile, authors of new research have discovered a link between excessive sitting and the risk of early death, as reported by Science Alert.
What Scientists Have Discovered
A team of American researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) included 5,856 participants aged 63 to 99 in their study. At the start, they asked participants to wear an activity monitor on their hips for seven days. The researchers then followed the group for ten years. During that time, 1,733 participants died.
The researchers used artificial intelligence to determine how much time participants spent sitting from the activity-monitor data and to correlate that with mortality risk. The data showed that people who sat more than 11 hours a day had a 57 percent higher risk of death than those who sat less than nine and a half hours.
But wouldn’t regular exercise cancel out those risks? The UCSD study found that the risk of premature death persisted even among people with relatively high levels of moderate and vigorous physical activity. A 2019 study also found that increased physical activity does not fully eliminate the risk of problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke that can stem from prolonged sitting.
However, a recent study conducted by Australian researchers showed that walking 9,000 to 10,500 steps daily reduces the risk of premature death, even among people who sit a lot.
The conflicting results can be explained in part by how the studies measured movement. Participants in the UCSD study wore activity monitors on their hips, while those in the Australian study wore them on their wrists. The Australian researchers also did not use AI tools to analyze the activity-monitor data. As a result, standing might have been recorded as sitting. For example, if a participant stood still for half an hour, the wrist monitor might interpret that as half an hour of sitting. That means the Australian study may not have accurately measured how long participants actually sat.
Daniel Bailey says the American team’s evidence appears more precise. The UCSD findings align with World Health Organization recommendations to limit daily sitting time and to break up sitting regularly.
What Constitutes Excessive Sitting?
So, how many hours of sitting pose a danger to life? The UCSD study points to 11 hours a day. Other researchers argue that even seven hours of sitting daily is too much. Numerous studies show that you should not sit for more than 30 minutes continuously, because long uninterrupted sitting contributes to elevated blood sugar and blood pressure levels.
How can you combat prolonged sitting? Use a standing desk at work. Stand up from your chair and switch tasks or move around during conversations. At home, break up sitting during TV commercial breaks or while the kettle boils. Use smart devices that remind you when you’ve been sitting too long.
But what if standing or walking is inconvenient or inappropriate in a given situation? A 2020 study showed that short bursts of arm exercises (for example, two minutes after 20 minutes of sitting) help lower blood sugar levels. So any small movement that breaks up sitting still helps improve health.
