Many people spend more than half their waking hours sitting down. And activities that don’t enhance health account for quite a lot of the remainder. This growing trend may cause more trouble than most people realize. Observational studies suggest habitual inactivity raises risks for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, deep-vein thrombosis, and metabolic syndrome.
Gain Weight or Develop Diabetes
In fact, one study that followed more than 50,000 middle-aged women for six years found that even among women who were avid exercisers, the more television they watched, the more likely they were to gain weight or develop diabetes — regardless of how much physical activity they did. For every two hours the women spent watching television each day, they had a 23% greater risk of becoming obese and a 14% greater risk of developing diabetes. Sitting at work for many hours also heightened their risks for obesity and diabetes. When planning your day, it may be beneficial not only to increase the time you spend exercising but also to try to reduce your “sitting time.”
The case for exercise is strong. Decades of solid science confirm that adding as little as half an hour of moderately intense exercise to your day improves health and extends life.
Here’s a quick snapshot of the benefits exercise provides — not just while you are engaging in the exercise, but also over the long term:
- Lessens the likelihood of getting heart disease, the No. 1 killer of both women and men in America. Exercising regularly helps prevent plaque buildup by striking a healthier balance of blood lipids (HDL, LDL, and triglycerides), helps arteries retain resilience despite the effects of aging, and bumps up the number of blood vessels feeding the heart. It also reduces inflammation and discourages the formation of blood clots that can block coronary arteries. Even if you already have heart disease, exercise lowers your chances of dying from it.
- Lowers blood pressure, a boon for many body systems. Long-term hypertension (high blood pressure) doubles or triples the odds of developing heart failure and helps pave the way to other kinds of heart disease, stroke, aortic aneurysms, and kidney disease or failure.
- Helps prevent diabetes by paring off excess weight, modestly lowering blood sugar levels, and boosting sensitivity to insulin so that less is needed to transport glucose into cells. If you have diabetes, exercise helps control blood sugar.
- Reduces risk for developing colon and breast cancers, and possibly cancers of the endometrium (uterine lining) and lung. By helping you attain a healthy weight, exercise lessens your risk for cancers in which obesity is a factor, too.
- Helps shore up bones. When combined with calcium, vitamin D, and bone-saving medications if necessary, weight-bearing exercise like walking, running, and strength training helps ward off age-related bone loss. And balance-enhancing activities, including tai chi and yoga, help prevent falls that may end in fractures.
- Helps protect joints by easing swelling, pain, and fatigue and by keeping cartilage healthy. Strong muscles support joints and lighten the load upon them. Activities that boost flexibility, such as stretching, yoga, and tai chi, extend range of motion.
- May limit and even reverse knee problems by helping to control weight — quite a bang for the buck, since every pound of weight lost reduces the load on the knee by 4 pounds.
- Lifts spirits by releasing mood-lifting hormones and relieving stress. In some studies, exercising regularly has helped ease mild to moderate depression as effectively as medications; combining exercise with medications, therapy, and social engagement is even better.
- May boost your ability to fend off infection.
- Adds years to your life. In the long-running Framingham Heart Study, moderate activity tacked on 1.3 years of life for men and 1.5 years of life for women versus low activity. Raising the bar to high activity added 3.7 years for men and 3.5 years for women.
Add Comment