Study: Five minutes of activity every half hour may reduce the harm of sitting
A lot of evidence has proved that sitting for a long time is harmful to health, so many experts recommend that people sit less and move more. So how should it be quantified? Researchers at Columbia University in the United States said that getting up and moving for five minutes every half hour of sitting can achieve a more ideal effect.
The research team led by Dr. Keith Dias, associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Medicine and Surgery, recruited 11 middle-aged and elderly volunteers, most of whom were healthy and free of diabetes and high blood pressure. According to the requirements, the research subjects sat on the ergonomic chair in the laboratory for 8 hours every day for 5 days. When sitting, they can play on their phones, use their laptops, or read, and they will eat their meals on time. But on one day, they were unable to get up and move except to go to the bathroom. For the remaining 4 days, they could choose one of the following 4 activities every day: walk on the treadmill for 1 minute or 5 minutes after every 30 minutes or 60 minutes of sitting.
During these 5 days, the researchers will regularly measure the blood sugar and blood pressure of the volunteers. They found that all of these activities lowered volunteers' blood pressure by 4 to 5 mm Hg compared with sitting still all day. In addition, 5 minutes of exercise after every 30 minutes of sitting had the most obvious effect on lowering blood sugar, but getting up and moving after 60 minutes of sitting had no effect on blood sugar.
The researchers also assessed the volunteers' mood, fatigue and cognitive levels. They found that, except for the method of exercising for 1 minute every 60 minutes, the rest of the activities can effectively reduce the fatigue of the volunteers and boost their mood. However, none of these activities had an effect on cognitive levels.
The relevant research report was published online on the 12th by the American College of Sports Medicine's "Sports Medicine and Science" quarterly journal.
"The effect of exercise on mood and fatigue is important," Dias said in an article published on the Columbia University Irving Medical Center website. "If an activity makes you feel good and in a good mood, people will do it more."
"To be healthy, you need to be physically active at work, in addition to your daily exercise routine," he said. "Our findings suggest that even small amounts of walking activity spread throughout the workday can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and other diseases. risk of chronic disease."
