Got a heart disease? That's not the best excuse to be sedentary. In fact, it can only worsen your case and increase your risk of dying prematurely.
This is the result of a new study conducted by University of Ottawa Heart Institute researchers. According to them, if people with diagnosed cardiovascular disorder spend more time sitting than moving or standing, they have worse health than their fellows who are at least moderately active. If that isn't enough, exercising to compensate for the sedentary activity won't change the effect.
For the study, the team recruited more than 275 coronary artery disease patients who had undergone a rehabilitation program that taught them how to improve their health with certain levels of exercise.
Using a monitor that the patients wore over a period of nine days, the researchers were able to determine how long they had remained sedentary or engaged in any level of physical activity. They also calculated their heart fitness and body mass index (BMI), then compared this data with the length of time the patients were sitting or being sedentary.
Based on their analyses, there's a correlation between a high BMI and the length of time for sitting. They also rated poorly in terms of cardiovascular fitness. Further, on the average, people with heart disease spent eight hours of sedentary activity, majority of which could be sitting. Compared to men, however, women were more active by an hour more. Although the study didn't try to determine the exact reason why, they believed that women were more likely to engage in light activities like running errands or doing some house work. They also cited a previous study that suggested older men, who are more susceptible to heart disease, tend to spend more time on TV then women of the same age.
The researchers, whose work is found in European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention, then recommends moving every half hour to avoid being sedentary. These include doing light exercises while watching TV or sleeping rather than sitting to watch television.