Less sitting and more exercise protects you from premature death

How does sitting affect our risk of premature death??

Do you mostly work sitting or do you spend a large part of your free time on the sofa? If this applies to you, you should often get up and move, even if it's just a short walk in the office. Physicians now found that the time people spend sitting should be interrupted or replaced by time in motion as much as possible in order to protect themselves from premature death.

Researchers at Columbia University found in their study that replacing sitting time with more exercise can protect people from the risk of premature death. The researchers published the results of their study in the English-language journal "American Journal of Epidemiology".

Most people spend a lot of time sitting during the day. Sitting too long has a negative impact on the risk of premature death. (Image: Jacek Chabraszewski / fotolia.com)

Sufficient exercise during the day is important for your health

Even short periods of time in which people move bring health benefits, explain the experts. Just a short walk is an advantage, study author Dr. Keith Diaz of Columbia University. Periods of exercise can last for even a minute, it's more about getting enough exercise or activity throughout the day, the physician adds. For example, you can walk to a colleague at work to ask questions, rather than contact him over the phone. To reduce the time of sitting and increase your activity.

Data from nearly 8,000 people were evaluated for the study

In their study, the researchers analyzed data from nearly 8,000 adults in the United States aged 45 or older. These had participated in a study on the risk of stroke. Each of the participants wore a so-called activity tracker for a period of between four and seven days. Overall, participants spent an average of 694 minutes or 11.5 hours sitting in their waking hours during the day.

Just 30 minutes more exercise a day had a big impact

After considering factors such as age, gender, race, smoking, and a variety of potential health problems, the team found that replacing seats with exercise reduced the risk of death. Replacing 30 minutes of sitting time during the day with 30 minutes of low-intensity activity reduces the risk of premature death by about 17%. When sitting was replaced by 30-minute activities such as running or cycling, the risk of premature death was even reduced by 35 percent. However, these benefits could only be found in subjects who were not particularly active at the beginning.

There were restrictions on the investigation?

One of the limitations of the latest study is that it did not investigate whether the findings are also applicable to younger people, that transient data was collected for a short period of time, that health data were collected only at a specific time, and that the participants were only medically monitored over a short period of time were. Nevertheless, sitting is harmful and increases your risk of premature death, whether you sit for a short time or spend a long time sitting down. Diaz. (As)