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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Stay Active All Day To Prevent Heart Disease! One of the reasons that triggers an increasing number of overweight or obese people worldwide is sedentary lifestyle. A person is said to have a sedentary lifestyle if he or she has irregular or simply no physical activity. This person may also be referred to as a couch potato. Sitting, reading, watching television, playing video games and computer use are some examples of sedentary activities. These activities involve very little or practically no vigorous physical exercise. People with a sedentary lifestyle are at a higher risk of many preventable causes of death. Besides obesity, sedentary lifestyle can also be a risk factor for other medical disorders including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, deep vein thrombosis, and colon cancer. Studies showed that sedentary lifestyle could even raise mortality in elderly men by 30 percent and in elderly women by 50 percent. Clearly, people require some sorts of physical activities to keep fit. For a long time, scientists have concluded that physical activity is good for the heart. But most of the previous studies focused more on exercise instead of the background activity that people do during their daily life. Researchers from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm and other institutes found that a generally active life, even without regular exercise sessions, could lead to better heart health and greater longevity. Their findings were published online 28 October 2013 in the ‘British Journal of Sports Medicine’.
Out of more than 5,000 60-year-olds Swedes invited to the study between 1997 and 1999, 4,232 individuals participated and answered a questionnaire about health history, lifestyle and daily activities, as well as medical tests and measurements. People who were more active on a daily basis, regardless of their exercise levels, tended to have smaller waists and healthier cholesterol levels. During the follow-up period of 12.5 years, nearly 500 participants had a first-time heart attack or stroke, and nearly 400 died from any cause. It was also found that people who had reported high levels of daily non-exercise activity were less likely to suffer events related to heart disease and less likely to die than those who were the least active. In the study, only 73 highly active people had a heart attack or stroke for every 100 people reporting low activity levels, and only 70 of most active people died for every 100 of the least active. According to researchers, engaging in regular exercise is still important as their findings indicated that those who exercised regularly and that also had a daily physically active life had the lowest risk profile of all. Professionals specializing in heart health and exercise explained that while sitting, muscles do not contract, which lowers blood flow. This would reduce the efficiency of many body processes like absorbing glucose from the blood. Non-exercise activity likely prevents the general slowing-down associated with sitting. Hence, besides having regular health enhancing exercise, people should also think what they could do during the long periods in the day when they are not exercising. Human beings are designed to move and should have a mix of all levels of activity. It is, therefore, essential for us to move more and sit less throughout the day regardless of whether we exercise or not. However, exercise only takes up a rather small fraction of the day and leaving the rest of the time for either sitting still or engaging in some non-exercise activities such as home repairs, gardening, car maintenance or fishing. Older people tend to exercise less vigorously than younger people. Spending more time on low-intensity activities could help cut down on sitting time. While moderate-to-vigorous exercise helps strengthen the heart muscle and other body muscles, and might as well help regulate blood pressure more than general activity, it is important for doctors and society in general to promote daily activity, and not just exercise.
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