A new American study said that men who sit for long periods of time are likely to suffer a heart failure than those men with high physical activity levels.
According to a January 21 news release from the American Heart Association (AHA), the risk of heart failure in men – even in men who exercise regularly – increases with sitting for long periods of time. The results of the research appear in the AHA journal Circulation: Heart Failure.
The researchers found that preventing heart failure requires a two-part, common sense approach: increase levels of physical activity and decrease levels of sedentary time. The groundbreaking study is the first to investigate the link between heart failure and sedentary time, according to Deborah Rohm Young, Ph.D., a lead researcher and senior scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California.
“Be more active and sit less. That’s the message here,” Young said.
The researchers tracked a racially varied group of 84,170 men ages 45 to 69 without heart failure. Exercise levels were calculated in metabolic equivalent of task (METS), a measure of the body’s energy use. Sedentary levels were calculated in hours.
Following an average of eight years of follow-up, the study found that men with low levels of physical activity were 52 percent more likely to develop heart failure than those men with high physical activity levels, even after correcting for differences in sedentary time.
Aside from work, men who spent five hours or more each day sitting were 34 percent more likely to develop heart failure than men who spent no more than two hours a day sitting, irrespective of how much they exercised. The risk of heart failure increased two-fold in men who sat for at least five hours a day, and got little exercise compared to men who were very physically active and sat for two hours or fewer each day.
According to Young, the study supports the AHA’s recommendation that men and women get at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity to decrease their risk for heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases.--Source: Science Recorder