Being sedentary is not just a lack of exercise, it is a potential independent risk factor for heart disease and stroke, according to a science advisory from the American Heart Association.
Regardless of how much physical activity someone gets, prolonged sedentary time could negatively impact the health of your heart and blood vessels.
Recent studies have documented the deleterious effect of overall sedentary time on central adiposity (larger waist circumference), fasting triglyceride levels and markers of insulin resistance. With prolonged periods of sitting, fewer skeletal muscle contractions may impact the glucose control kinematics leading to metabolic syndrome.
In one study it required two years of high-intensity exercise to reverse the effects of heart aging due to sedentary lifestyle on ejection fraction and cardiac stiffness.
This study greatly improves our understanding of cardiac compliance and plasticity with aging as well as the power of exercise-induced cardiac remodeling. We certainly know that "exercise works" even beyond the simple parameters of weight, BP, glucose levels, insulin resistance, lipids, etc., but this study starts to elucidate some of the deeper mechanistic variables.
Note that this program was more than get off the couch and walk the dog.
The two takeaway messages from this is that:
- Sitting time poses a cardiovascular risk even if you exercise. Consider that three hours of exercise per week is only 5.3% of 57 waking hours per week (eight hours for seven days per week).
- To improve and maintain heart health exercise needs to pitch at an intensity that challenges the cardiovascular system.
Our new tool that measures arterial stiffness
Measurements are interpreted against this graph. We can measure the impact of our programme on arterial stiffness over time.