February 24, 2010

Study Finds Sitting For More Than 4 Hours Increases Chance of Heart Disease

Posted in Heart Disease in the News, New Heart Studies tagged , , , , , , , , , , , at 5:38 pm by keepyourhearthealthy

A recent Australian study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association reportedly showed that sitting for long periods of time can increase your chance of death from heart disease significantly.  Regardless of physical activity or fitness level, people in this study who sat for more than 4 hours at a time were 80% more likely to die from heart disease!!  This means that even if you work out for an hour in the morning every single day, you could still have an increased risk of cardiac death if you sit around and watch TV for 4 hours afterward.  Or even if you have a desk job that requires long periods of sitting, you may be increasing your chances of a heart attack.

The best solution to counteract this risk is to get up and walk around every hour or so.  Try to avoid sitting for longer than 2 hours at a time.  You don’t need to necessarily jog around the block every 2 hours but at least get in some type of activity between periods of being sedentary.  To read more about the study, you can see the NY Daily News article at: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2010/01/12/2010-01-12_hours_spent_watching_tv_linked_to_risk_of_death_from_heart_disease.html