The Straits Times
Feb 8, 2011, Tuesday
No ifs or butts about this health alert
Sitting down for long periods can lead to medical problems: Study
By Salma Khalik , HEALTH CORRESPONDENT
GETTING up and moving about for a minute or two, rather than just sitting for long periods, could give you a smaller waist and reduce your risk of suffering a heart attack.
A large-scale study of 4,757 adults in the United States has determined that sitting down for too long is bad - regardless of whether the person exercises regularly and has a healthy diet.
It lowers good cholesterol, increases triglycerides - a fat that hardens arteries - and produces an inflammatory agent in the blood called the C-reactive protein that is also bad for the heart.
However, getting up for a short break every now and then is enough to counter the ill effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
Over a three-year period until 2006, participants in the study who took the most movement breaks had, on average, waists that were 4.1cm smaller than those who sat for long periods.
A break was defined as any interruption of sedentary time.
The study was published in the European Heart Journal last month.
The 4,757 people studied were chosen from more than 20,000 participants in the US Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Only participants with proper supporting data were used.
Several doctors in Singapore have called the study 'credible', saying it underscores the importance of not leading too sedentary a lifestyle.
Dr Stanley Liew, a hormone specialist at Raffles Hospital, said the report was the first large-scale study to objectively look at sedentary time and its effect on heart attacks and strokes.
'While people should exercise regularly, this study highlighted that we should also avoid prolonged resting or sitting time,' he said.
Dr Tey Beng Hea, a senior diabetes consultant at Alexandra Hospital, said it is a well-known fact that activity increases the body's ability to use up sugar in the blood and improves cholesterol and blood pressure levels.
Associate Professor Tai E Shyong of the National University Hospital (NUH) remarked: 'What we can say, with some conviction, is that people should limit the amount of time that they spend doing activities which involve a great deal of sitting still, such as watching television.'
Watching television increases the risk of obesity and heart disease, said Prof Tai, referring to another study published last year that found that every hour spent watching television a day increases a person's risk of dying from heart disease by almost a fifth.
That study discovered that the risk is the same for office workers who sit at their desks for long periods.
Dr Goh Su Yen of Singapore General Hospital added that children who watch a lot of television before the age of six tend to be fatter, even if they do run around a lot.
Spending too much time sitting down can offset the benefits, no matter how much time a person spends exercising, he said.
So the take-home message from the recent study, said Dr Goh, is: 'Don't just sit on your butt. Get up, get moving'.
salma@sph.com.sg
www.facebook.com/ST.Salma
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