Is sitting unhealthy and why we should move more?
Too much sitting not only makes you ill, it even increases the risk of death. It’s not for nothing that experts are talking about a “sitting pandemic” or that sitting is “the new smoking”. However, just a few minutes of exercise a day can counteract this.
At work, eating, watching TV – according to an analysis by the Global Observatory for Physical Activity, Austrians spend an average of around 5.3 hours a day sitting down. This means that only 47 percent of adults, specifically 48 percent of men and 45 percent of women, fulfill the endurance-related minimum recommendations for physical activity.
The health risks of prolonged sitting
The consequences are fatal: they range from back pain to cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes to high blood pressure. The risk of developing depression or cancer is also increased by sitting for too long.
The same applies to dementia, as a recent study by the University of Southern California USC and the University of Arizona shows: According to the study, the total daily time spent sitting is a determining factor in brain ageing. People who sat for more than ten hours a day had an eight percent higher risk of developing dementia.
If the sitting time was more than twelve hours, this risk increased by 63 percent and for those who sat for more than 15 hours, it increased by 221 percent. “We were surprised when we found that the risk of developing dementia increases rapidly after ten hours of sedentary work per day,” says study author Gene Alexander, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry.
And this is independent of how the sedentary activity came about. According to Alexander, this suggests that the relationship between sedentary behavior and dementia risk is determined by the total time spent sitting.
Life-threatening sitting
Too much sitting can even be potentially life-threatening, as a recent study from Scandinavia shows: Almost 12,000 people over the age of 50 were observed for an average of 5.2 years. Around half of the test subjects spent more than 10.5 hours a day sitting. It was found that those who sat for more than twelve hours a day had a 38 percent higher risk of death. According to researchers at MedUni Vienna, almost eight percent of all deaths in Austria are due to a lack of physical activity. Worldwide, the figure is nine percent.
At least 20 minutes of exercise…
However, the study also showed that this risk decreased with just 20 to 25 minutes of physical activity per day. This includes, for example, brisk walking, hiking and cycling, but also housework. The risk of death was reduced the longer the period of physical activity lasted – regardless of how many hours a day were spent sitting.
ensure that we stay healthy.
…or eleven minutes of intensive training
Similar recommendations come from the World Health Organization (WHO): it advises at least 21 minutes of moderate or eleven minutes of intensive exercise every day. The former includes exercise that slightly increases your heart rate and makes you sweat a little. Intensive training, on the other hand, is when you get very out of breath and start sweating.
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