Continually Sitting Down May Cause Disease

Many Americans have desk jobs where they sit nearly all day and don't use many muscles. In the past, health professionals have advised everyone to get at least 30 minutes of activity, 5 days a week, regardless of their occupation, including those who were desk bound.

Researchers have discovered that the activities that we engage in for the duration of our day is more important than getting that 30 minutes of exercise every day. In a recent press release, researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia discovered that the enzymes in our body, muscles, and blood vessels that are involved in burning fat shut off within hours of sitting down, and not standing.

We can reactivate these fat-burning enzymes by simply standing and moving around just a little instead of sitting all of the time. It sounds simple, but it is all that is needed to help boost our metabolism, fend off diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.

Even if someone stood up, without moving around at all, the fact that they are standing will cause their body to use more calories just to support the extra energy that their muscles need.

We can double our metabolic rate by simply standing instead of sitting. They found that standing whenever possible is a much better way to live than sitting all day and only getting a limited amount of exercise, or none at all.

"Many activities like talking on the phone or watching a child's ballgame can be done just as enjoyably upright, and you burn double the number of calories while you're doing it. We're pretty stationary when we're talking on the phone or sitting in a chair at a ballgame, but if you stand, you're probably going to pace or move around," said Marc Hamilton, an associate professor of biomedical sciences.

Researchers studied the effects of limited to little activity by humans, pigs, and rats. When humans are inactive, they tend to they sit in a chair, talk on the phone, use a computer, read, or watch TV. These activities have a negative effect on the cholesterol metabolism and fat in the human body.

They hope that this new information will help businesses, employees, communities and workplaces address the problems that are caused by inactivity. If businesses modified their working environment to provide an area where people could stand while doing their jobs, they would reap a multitude of health benefits in return.

Suggestions for getting activity include shopping, typing while standing up, doing household chores, and even fidgeting while standing and talking on the phone or reading.

Source:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/uom-msf111907.php