Stand Up for Your Health and Reduce Your Risk of Chronic Disease

There is no denying the importance of regular physical activity in both losing weight and keeping it off.  But your weight might not be the only thing affected by your activity level.  According to a recent study conducted at Kansas State University, the amount of sitting time you engage in on a daily basis impacts your risk of developing chronic disease.

Two assistant professors of human nutrition at the university collected data from a sample of 194,545 men and women ages 45-106 years old from a large Australian study of health and aging.  The study focused on the importance of reducing sitting time.  Nowadays, many adults spend a majority of their days sitting behind a desk at work and younger generations are engaging in more sedentary activities such as video games, smartphones and computer games.

According to the researchers, prolonged periods of sitting means little muscular contraction is occurring resulting in a shut off of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), a molecule that helps take in fat or triglycerides and use it for energy.  By shutting off this process, you are significantly lowering your metabolic rate throughout the day.  Also, when this molecule isn’t functioning properly, it raises your blood triglyceride level.  High triglycerides in combination with a lack of physical activity are both risk factors for developing diseases such as cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome.

I understand it is difficult to stay active in a job that requires you to sit all day, but there are things you can do to help yourself become more active.  I always incorporate the importance of decreasing sitting time in the work I do with my clients.  I cannot stress enough the importance of scheduling breaks throughout your day.

Here’s a challenge for you: sit for no more than 30 minutes at a time.  Set your cell phone alarm to ring at 30 minutes. Get up and walk around, even for 5 minutes. Take your dog out for a quick stroll. Or go visit a co-worker on the next floor. It will relax your mind as well as your body and help to reduce your risk of chronic disease.

Your turn to take action: How many minutes or hours do you spend sitting each day and how will you decrease this time to better take care of your health? Please share in the comments below.

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