Sitting can cause more than just a headache. It’s linked to diabetes and obesity. Stockfour / Shutterstock.com“Src =” https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/DuyNar8.THhoZaIig6KOzQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTQ3MC45NzkxNjY2NjY2 / – ~ B / aD05NjI7dz0xNDQwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u / https://media.zenfs.com/de/the_conversation_us_articles_815/ 1e29615b172ed0ee133513e83e827450 “data-src /” /YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTQ3MC45NzkxNjY2NjY2NjY3/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/dKjBqH5vQcqk3NRMLwhsNA–~B/aD05NjI7dz0xNDQwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_conversation_us_articles_815/ 1e29615b172ed0ee133513e83e827450 “/>
Adults are sitting more than ever and few pay attention to how they sit all day.
Take a moment to ponder all of the reasons we sit. First of all, you are likely to be seated as you read this. Some of the most common sitting activities include eating meals; Drive; to phone; Using a computer, television, or small device; and reading. Now take another moment to think about all of the sitting that you have done in your life.
Older Americans spend a lot of time sitting down. Matthew Mclaughlin / Figshare, CC BY-SA“Src =” “data-src =” https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/6o8eUBebarYI0.mZkHFnxA–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTQyNi40Mjcwz / res / 1.2 / luoRRQtdcH3qr8rTd_.dyA– ~ B / aD04NzE7dz0xNDQwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u / https: //media.zenfs.com/en/the_conversation_us_articles_815/cbec3d7f8f7f8f7f
The fact is, the amount of time spent sitting has increased over time. And with innovations like Alexa, grocery delivery, and prepackaged meals, we expect many older adults to sit longer and do so more often. To date, the average older adult spends between 56 and 86 percent of his or her sedentary day on guard. That’s a lot of sitting.
Our research team studies healthy aging and is interested in how too much sitting can lead to heart disease and diabetes. Our 2018 study found that the way older adults accumulate their sitting time could be important in aging without diabetes.
What happens when you sit?
If you sit for long periods of time without getting up, the large, stressful muscles of the legs remain inactive. Without action, these muscles cannot efficiently use the sugars and fats floating in your blood – and in theory this could lead to weight gain and metabolic disorders like diabetes.
At the same time, decreased blood flow to your arteries leads to hostile conditions that promote injury to the blood vessel walls. Over a lifetime, this injury is likely to contribute to heart disease and peripheral artery disease. If your leg muscles are kept closed for long periods of time, blood will pool in your veins, leading to an increased risk of blood clots or deep vein thrombosis. Standing up and moving can stop these processes, but all too often we just keep sitting.
The blood flow can become turbulent and damage the arteries. www.pexels.com“Src =” “data-src =” https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/5eHpw1VKCkLIhqb6w9kseQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTM1Mi41/htt// 1.2 / .xNpVoTuuW8xFKvCn_8Tcw– ~ B / aD03MjA7dz0xNDQwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u / https: //media.zenfs.com/de/the_conversation_us_articles_815/64b394fa4>
The blood flow can become turbulent and damage the arteries. www.pexels.com
Seat pattern
Sitting patterns describe how people sit all day. Some people usually sit up for long periods of time and rarely get up. They should have longer seating patterns. Others rarely sit still. They get up regularly after sitting for a short time. These sitters are said to have interrupted sitting patterns. Where do you fit into the range of seating patterns?
The story goes on
Are Sitting Patterns Important for Metabolic Health?
Emerging evidence suggests yes. We learned from observational studies that adults with longer sitting patterns had larger waist lines, a higher BMI, and fewer good fats, more bad fats, and higher blood sugar levels than adults with interrupted sitting patterns.
To test whether problems with fat and sugar metabolism were caused by sitting patterns, researchers around the world conducted experiments. They took adults to a lab at least twice and left them sitting non-stop for about eight hours (an extremely long pattern. On the second day, participants were asked to get up every 20 to 30 minutes (a very intermittent pattern). The breaks lasted two to five Minutes and included standing still, easy walking, simple resistance exercises, or walking with moderate intensity, depending on the study.
When the researchers compiled evidence from most of the laboratory studies, the results were clear. On days with longer patterns, our bodies cannot metabolize fats or sugars as well as on days with interrupted patterns. Blood pressure and fatigue were also higher on days with prolonged sitting than on days with interrupted patterns.
These groundbreaking laboratory studies provided strong evidence that sitting patterns had an immediate impact on how the body processes fats and sugars, also known as metabolism. This led to the idea that prolonged sitting patterns throughout life could contribute to metabolic diseases such as diabetes later in life. Since diabetes can take a long time to develop, this question cannot be feasibly tested in a laboratory. Instead, we turned to an observational study of the population to answer the question.
Are Sitting Patterns Linked to Diabetes?
We recruited over 6,000 women aged 65 to 99 into the Women’s Health Initiative and measured their movement patterns for seven days using research-quality activity monitors. We also had detailed health records for over 20 years that included information about whether the women had ever been diagnosed with diabetes by a doctor.
As expected, the group with the longest sitting patterns had the most women with diabetes. The group with the most disrupted patterns had the fewest women with diabetes.
We used advanced statistical techniques to account for differences in other factors such as eating habits, physical activity, drug use, weight, age, alcohol and cigarette use, and general health, which gave us more confidence that the sitting patterns actually influenced the results. However, we should point out that we do not know whether the sitting patterns contributed to diabetes or whether the diabetes changed their sitting patterns because we did not measure the sitting patterns until the women were first diagnosed with diabetes. We ran additional statistical tests to untangle this, which indicated that sitting patterns contributed to diabetes. However, additional studies are required that are specifically suited to answering the causality question.
While this was the first study of sedentary lifestyle and diabetes exclusively in older adults, our results were remarkably similar to recent results from a younger cohort. Researchers from the Netherlands studied 2,500 adults ages 40 to 75 and found that prolonged sitting patterns were linked to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
Conclusions and Advice
Based on the results of our study and those of the Dutch researchers, it appears, when looking at the previous epidemiological data and results of the laboratory experiments, that sitting patterns may contribute to the growing international diabetes epidemic.
As with any science, however, these initial studies are only the beginning of the story. We still have a lot of work to do. Right now, chances are that changing your sitting patterns might offer protection against diabetes, especially if long sitting fights have always been interrupted with light activity or even better moderate-intensity activity, as recommended by the American Diabetes Association.
American Diabetes Association recommendations. Matthew Mclaughlin / figshare.com, CC BY-SA“Src =” “data-src =” https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/v4yB77i0Cgcy26WfLyPItQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTQ4Ny4xMz / 1.2 / yWhtxJzVspwthUagKYXrpg– ~ B / aD05OTU7dz0xNDQwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u / https: // media. zenfs.com/en/the_conversation_us_articles_815/13a585195edbb6b90a
The authors would like to thank Dr. Jonathan Unkart for helping with this story.
This article was republished by The Conversation, a non-profit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.
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John Bellettiere has received funding from National Institutes of Health Education Fellowships (T32HL079891-11 and TL1TR001443).
Andrea LaCroix receives funding from the National Institute for Aging Research and the National Institute for Heart, Lung, and Blood in connection with this research.
Matthew Mclaughlin does not work for any company or organization that would benefit from this article, does not consult any stocks or companies that would benefit from this article, and has not disclosed any relevant affiliations beyond her academic appointment.
