If you don't exercise, at least stand up a lot!

William Atkins
Friday, 14 March 2008 20:30

Science - Health

The conclusions of the Hamilton team study bring to light some important health risks involved with a very sedentary lifestyle.

They state in their paper: “… the average non-exercising person may become even more metabolically unfit in the coming years if they sit too much—thereby limiting the normally high volume of intermittent non-exercise physical activity in everyday life.”

In addition, “... if the inactivity physiology paradigm is proven to be true, the dire concern for the future may rest with growing numbers of people unaware of the potential insidious dangers of sitting too much, and who are not taking advantage of the benefits of maintaining non-exercise activity throughout much of the day.”

In other words, do not remain seated all day. Stand up often during the day, walk around, pace, do anything to get your system running properly and to help decrease the chances of health problems.

Their results were written up in the journal Diabetes. The title of their study is “The Role of Low Energy Expenditure and Sitting on Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease.”

The authors of the study are Marc T. Hamilton (also an investigator with the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center), Deborah G. Hamilton, and Theodore W. Zderic.