-Suggests daily walk of seven miles for office workers to beat risk
Scientists from the Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick, England, have found a relationship between sedentary lifestyle and higher risks of cardiovascular disease. They discovered sitting at a desk for a long period of time every day leads to increase in waist circumference, which is a major predisposing factor to heart disease.
To reduce the risk or prevent this condition, the researchers suggested a seven-miles-walk per day or an equivalent of 15,000 steps per day, to have a zero risk factors.
Although this may sound strange and incredible to company’s employees, but the study published in the International Journal of Obesity, and reported on DailyMailOnline affirmed the authenticity of their findings.
Dr William Tigbe of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick, who led the research, said: “Longer time spent in sedentary posture is significantly associated with larger waist circumference, higher triglycerides (fat in the blood) and lower HDL cholesterol, all adding up to worse risk of heart disease
“The levels associated with zero risk factors were walking more than 15,000 steps per day, which is equivalent to walking seven to eight miles, or spending seven hours per day upright”.
With a 111 population sampled of healthy Glaswegian postal workers who were kitted out with activity monitors for seven days, 55 of them were office workers and 56 delivered post for a living.
Findings showed that those who had desk jobs registered a bigger waist circumference – 97cm compared to 94cm – and approximately one BMI unit difference.They also had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease – 2.2% compared to 1.6% over 10 years.
The research suggests waist circumference increases by two centimetres, and risk of cardiovascular diseases by 0.2 per cent, for every additional hour of sitting on top of five hours.
