Sitting all day is unhealthy, but there is an alternative

If your work or school requires you to spend many hours sitting, there is a way to reduce the damage this is doing to your health: take an easy walk (short and leisurely) for five minutes every half hour. This is the main finding of a new study that my colleagues and I have published in a journal. Medicine and science in sports and exercise.

To do this, we asked 11 healthy middle-aged and older people to sit in our lab for eight hours—a standard work day—for five days. On one such day, the participants sat for the entire eight hours with short breaks in the toilet. On the rest of the days, we tried different strategies to interrupt the time a person spends in a sitting position with walks. For example, participants once walked for one minute every half hour. On another day they walked for five minutes every hour.

Our goal was to find the shortest possible walking time to counteract the detrimental health effects of sitting. To do this, throughout the day, we measure changes in blood sugar and blood pressure, two important risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

So we found that walking slowly for five minutes every half hour was the only strategy that significantly lowered blood sugar compared to sitting all day. Specifically, walking for five minutes every half hour reduced the post-meal blood sugar spike by almost 60%.

Blood pressure drops four to five points

This strategy also reduced blood pressure by four to five points compared to sitting all day. Shorter and less frequent walks also improved blood pressure. Even a minute walk every hour lowered blood pressure by five points.

In addition to the physical health benefits, walking breaks were also beneficial for mental health. During the study, we asked participants to rate their mental state using a questionnaire. We found that, compared to sitting all day, a five-minute walk every half hour reduced feelings of fatigue, improved participants’ mood, and made them feel more energized. We also found that walking once an hour was enough to improve mood and reduce feelings of fatigue.

Why is it important to move?

People who sit for hours develop chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and various types of cancer much faster than people who move frequently during the day. A sedentary lifestyle also increases the risk of premature death. The problem is that just daily exercise cannot eliminate the harmful health effects of sitting.

Thanks to technological advances in recent decades, the amount of time that adults in industrialized countries spend sitting is constantly increasing. Today, many adults spend most of the day sitting. This problem has only worsened with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. The telecommuting trend means people are now less willing to leave home. Hence the need for strategies to deal with the growing public health challenge of the 21st century.

Movement yes, but how often?

Current recommendations recommend that adults “sit less and move more.” But these recommendations do not offer specific advice or strategies regarding the frequency and timing of movements.

Our work offers a simple and accessible strategy: take simple five-minute walks every half hour. If you have a job or lifestyle that requires you to sit for long periods of time, this change in behavior alone can reduce the health risks associated with spending so many hours in a chair.

Our research also offers clear recommendations for employers to promote a healthier workplace. While it may seem counterintuitive, taking regular walk breaks can help workers be more productive than non-stop work.

In terms of intensity, our research focused primarily on regular breaks for slow walking. We do not know if some of the walking strategies, such as walking for a minute every hour, could benefit the health of a forced gait.

Alternative for truck and bus drivers

We are currently testing over 25 different strategies to counter the harmful health effects of prolonged sitting. Many adults have jobs where they simply cannot walk every half hour, such as truck, bus or taxi drivers.

Finding alternative strategies that produce comparable results may ultimately allow people to choose the strategy that best suits them and their lifestyle.

Keith Diaz, Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.