It’s no secret that doing
some regular physical
activity is good for you, but
research is shedding new light
on the size of the dent leading
a sedentary lifestyle can put in
your health and wellbeing – and
on the type of daily movement
that can help to offset the
effects. It’s information that
might change how you feel
about being physically active
and how you go about doing it.
Here’s what you need to know...
Staying still is a bad move
Too much sitting has been
labelled ‘the new smoking’ in
the last few years and, while
most experts agree that
description has an element
of hype about it, there’s no
denying living a sedentary life
delivers its share of risks.
In fact, while previous research
connected taking too few steps
and sitting down for too long to
an increased risk of everything
from heart disease and diabetes
to some types of cancer, a study
conducted at the University of
California, Los Angeles also links
it to changes in a section of the
brain that’s critical for memory.
And, even if you have been a
regular exerciser in the past, the
impact of declaring a go-slow on
the activity front kicks in sooner
than you might think. In 2018,
two different studies confirmed
important measures of health,
including BGLs and insulin
sensitivity, declined after just
two weeks among people who
slashed their daily step count
from between 8000 and 10,000
steps to below 1000 or 2000.
More worryingly, in one of the
studies, most participants still
hadn’t been able to fully reverse
the negative changes caused by
staying still, two weeks afterthey’d returned to ‘normal’
activity levels.It’s moving regularly
that matters
Think your daily inactive hours
are counteracted by the fact you
work out regularly? Probably
not, according to latest research.
Building on a 2012 Australian
study that found regardless of
how much planned exercise
people did, those who spent
11 hours a day sitting down had
a 40 per cent higher risk of dying
compared with those who sat for
fewer than four hours, last year
US researchers discovered
something else, too. Adults who
sit for one to two hours at a time
without moving have a higher
mortality rate than those who
accrue the same amount of
sedentary time, but in shorterResearch suggests staying seated for
no more than 30 minutes at a time
With a plan in place, squeezing
extra steps into your day is more
achievable than you might think
Get a
ON
MOVE
100 MARCH/APRIL 2019 diabetic living