Health Education: sedentary behavior and disease

Too Much Chair Time

The body of research that associates prolonged sitting with all cause mortality, heart disease and several types of cancer continues to grow.  A news story published last month in a  WebMD newsletter listed three recent studies that support those previously published. The studies can control for other factors, including how much exercise a person gets or what their BMI (fat status) is and look only at the effect of prolonged sitting.  The findings are that sitting for more than an hour at a time has significant adverse consequences. The health promotion message is being modified accordingly.  It now goes beyond telling people to get daily exercise and advises them to limit sitting as well. (you realize 'people' and 'them' is you, right?) I have read at least one of the studies that was mentioned in the article and I am in the process of reading another, but here are some of the findings that you might find interesting: A study by Owen associates sitting with an increase in inflammation and other physiological changes that have been linked to cancer occurance. Friedenreich reports that exercise can prevent colon and breast cancer.  She looked at both colon and breast cancer incidence and compared people who exercised the most to those that exercised the least or not at all and found between 20 and 30% fewer cancer cases in the exercisers. Patel and Berstein (the study I am reading now) have found a link between sitting, regardless of weight and exercise levels, with any cause of death in the 14 years that they followed a group of persons.  Results included that for men who sit more than 6 hours continuously, there is a 18% greater risk of death than for men who sit the least and for women the increased risk was 37%. A study that I reported on earlier this year (<a href="http://yourhealtheducator.blogspot.com/2011/01/move-more-sit-less-it-matters.html" target="_blank">here)</a>, found that sitting time increased the risk of heart disease. The WebMD article ends with the suggestion that everyone make time for exercising but also include break times in their sitting occasions.  I have to be honest with you, and you can verify this with my classmates and even my mother (though I see her less often) - I have read so many of these studies that I have become almost incapable of sitting for more than an hour for fear that it will kill me :)

Too Much Chair Time

The body of research that associates prolonged sitting with all cause mortality, heart disease and several types of cancer continues to grow...

6:49 PM

TV and Early Death?

<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A study linking TV time with years of life lost allows me an opportunity to distinguish between population level results and individual factors.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The study is out of Australia and I have NOT reviewed it. Listening to Brian Williams report that watching TV was as bad on our health and longevity as smoking and obesity, gave me pause.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It is not watching TV as much as what we might be doing while watching TV.  This could include spending too much time on our bottoms and/or eating junk food. However, if you are watching TV while walking on your treadmill (and not eating chips)- it would likely extend your life.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Just things to consider. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Whereas, being obese and smoking have physical consequences in and of themselves,  watching TV is only (i expect) detrimental because of what we do or do not do because of it.</div>

TV and Early Death?

A study linking TV time with years of life lost allows me an opportunity to distinguish between population level results and individual fact...

7:39 PM

Move More - Sit Less - It MATTERS

Healy, G. N., Matthews, C. E., Dunstan, D. W., Winkler, E. A. H., & Owen, N. Sedentary time and cardio-metabolic biomarkers in US adults: NHANES 2003–06. European Heart Journal. January 2011 The study referenced above was only recently completed and published on line this month.  It is very important and adds to a growing body of evidence that is linking sedentary (inactive/sitting) behavior, in and of itself, with risk for disease.  This is emerging and important work.  I want you to wrap your head around that a bit.  This is like when scientists first began to report that second hand smoke could cause heart disease and lung cancer.  It took many years before policies to protect people from SHS were put into place.  Most did not think the science was convincing but today you would be hard pressed to find any US building (or UK, or France, Ireland,  etc) that allows indoor smoking.  The association between sitting and heart disease IS new.  This is not about the protective result of exercise, but the damaging effect of sitting for over an hour at a time and the even worse outcomes from having those hours of sitting add up in a day. I am reading the research studies and they are well done and valid.  The most recent one was even more convincing as the persons involved wore accelerometers - devices that tracked their movements and logged the amount of time that they were sedentary(not moving). The accelerometer tracked counts per minute and was only worn during waking hours  The results of the study are important on several levels. The researchers wanted to know if total time sitting/sedentary impacted certain biological measures of disease and if there was a dose response effect. The markers that were assessed (clinically - with lab tests) were blood pressure, blood fat, HDL, several blood sugar and insulin measures, <a href="http://yourhealtheducator.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results">C reactive protein</a> levels, and waist circumference. They wanted to know if there would be a difference on these markers (blood sugar, blood fats, etc) if the total sedentary time was broken up with any amount of break time (1 min to 15 minutes, for example) Lastly, they compared the above across certain demographic differences like sex, age and ethnicity. The findings were that YES the people who sat the most time compared to the people who sat the least, had worse readings across those markers (in degrees or dose response) with significant and pronounced differences on waist circumference (white only), blood fat levels and blood sugar levels.  This has been seen in previous research, but new for this study was that CRP was also adversely effected by sitting.   The scientists found that the differences between sitting without taking a break and sitting for the same total time with breaks were profound enough to recommend that a National Health Message on Sedentary Activity should include the benefits of taking breaks every hour or so.  In fact, they suggest that a substantial decrease in heart disease in this country could occur if people did NOT sit at their desk all day! Take that to the boss tomorrow - <a href="http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/01/08/eurheartj.ehq451.full">the study is available here</a> :)

Move More - Sit Less - It MATTERS

Healy, G. N., Matthews, C. E., Dunstan, D. W., Winkler, E. A. H., & Owen, N. Sedentary time and cardio-metabolic biomarkers in US adults...

6:53 PM

Health Education

Too Much Chair Time

TV and Early Death?

Move More - Sit Less - It MATTERS

Popular Posts

Blog Archive