Stand Up for Your Health

Making News:

While the American College of Sports Medicine recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each week for “significant health benefits,” emerging research suggests that more may be needed. Researchers at the University of Missouri–Columbia believe that what takes place during the rest of our waking hours is just as important as structured exercise—if not more so.

Several studies to be presented at the Second International Congress on Public Health in Amsterdam will illustrate a new model, which suggests that incorporating more activity throughout the day—for example, by standing instead of sitting—promotes increased resistance to disease. Lead researcher Marc Hamilton and his colleagues studied the body’s response to long-term sitting and discovered evidence that sedentary living promotes decreased metabolic activity and can stimulate disease despite daily hourlong exercise programs. Hamilton adds, “The enzymes in blood vessels of muscles responsible for ‘fat burning’ are shut off within hours of not standing.” He adds that standing and light movements can have an alternative effect and maintain enzyme activity for improved metabolism. “There is a large amount of energy associated with standing every day that can’t be easily compensated for by 30–60 minutes in the gym,” he argues.

While further research is called for, these findings help cement the fact that highly inactive people are at greater risk for health problems. According to the study, which was published online September 7, 2007 (doi: 10.2337/db07–0882), “the average nonexercising person may become even more metabolically unfit in the coming years if they sit too much, thereby limiting the normally high volume of intermittent nonexercise physical activity in daily life.”