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Cancer, diabetes, heart attack: a sedentary lifestyle can increase the risk of non-communicable diseases. Problem is, levels of sedentary lifestyle are increasingly high around the world, with at the same time insufficient physical activity, raising fears of significant effects on the health of populations. Researchers have looked into the subject, revealing that any activity, including working while standing, is better for your health than sitting.
How long do you sit in a day? A duration that is difficult to evaluate, but which has certainly increased with the democratization of teleworking and the advent of new technologies. And this increase in sedentary lifestyle occurs in parallel with a decline in physical activity, increasing the harmful effects.
Sedentary lifestyle: the other harm of the Covid-19 pandemic
In a report published in early 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) states: “The Covid-19 pandemic (…) has had a negative impact on physical activity levels in the European Union. More than half of the people questioned in the latest Eurobarometer survey said they had reduced their level of physical activity: 34% are less active and 18% are no longer active at all“.
France is not left out. According to data from ANSES, presented in February 2022, more than a third of adults would face a high level of sedentary lifestyle and inactivity. “[Ces personnes] are more exposed to cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers. They are also at greater risk of hypertension or obesity. Generally speaking, the risks associated with inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle are increased when they are combined“, then specified Irène Margaritis, head of the Nutrition Risk Assessment Unit at ANSES.
Alarming data that pushes health professionals and researchers to determine new strategies to fight against what some are already calling the evil of the century.
“It’s the intensity of the movement that counts”
A team led by researchers from University College London, in England, wanted to look into the subject, and more specifically into the impact of the different movements that a person can perform during a day on heart health. . To do this, she analyzed data from six studies based on 15,246 people living in five countries, using wearable devices intended to measure participants’ activity throughout the day, as well as measuring their heart health. Movements considered include moderate to vigorous activity, light activity, standing, sleeping, or being sedentary.
But the researchers mainly tried to determine what a change in behavior could have on heart health, and in particular the fact of replacing sedentary behavior with activity. Result : “When it comes to replacing sedentary behavior, just five minutes of moderate to vigorous activity has a noticeable effect on heart health“. At the end of their work, published in the European Heart Journalresearchers suggested that any activity, including sleeping or standing, was better for heart health than sitting, aka being sedentary.
“The big takeaway from our study is that while small changes in the way you move can have a positive effect on heart health, it’s the intensity of the movement that matters. The most beneficial change we saw was replacing sitting with moderate to vigorous activity – which could be running, brisk walking or climbing stairs – basically any activity that increases your heart rate and makes you breathe faster, even for a minute or two“, explains Dr Jo Blodgett, lead author of the study, in a press release.
Better to work standing
Among the study’s conclusions, we learn that replacing sitting with 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity for a 54-year-old woman with an average body mass index (BMI) of 26.5 resulted in a 2.4% decrease in BMI, a 2.5 cm reduction in waist circumference, and a 3.6% decrease in glycated hemoglobin. Markers associated with heart health. Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessarily a question of exercising excessively to achieve these results. Researchers explain, for example, that using a desk that allows you to work standing up for a few hours a day can be beneficial in avoiding sitting, which is the most harmful to health.
“We already know that exercise can have real benefits for cardiovascular health, and this encouraging research shows that small adjustments to your daily routine could reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke. This study shows that replacing even a few minutes of sitting with a few minutes of moderate activity can improve BMI, cholesterol, waist circumference and many other physical benefits.“, concludes James Leiper of the British Heart Foundation.
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