Sitting is no worse than Standing

Posted on by guetpooi

The article below was posted on The Sun Daily on 13th Oct 2015.

SITTING down is no worse for you than standing up as long as you take regular exercise, a British study said Monday, casting doubt on the health benefits of sit-stand work stations.

The study also challenged advice from the UK National Health Service (NHS) based on other studies stating that “remaining seated for too long is bad for your health, regardless of how much exercise you do”.

Exeter University and University College London researchers followed more than 5,000 people over a 16-year period and their findings were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

“Any stationary posture where energy expenditure is low may be detrimental to health, be it sitting or standing,” said Melvyn Hillsdon from Exeter’s sport and health sciences department.

“The results cast doubt on the benefits of sit-stand work stations, which employers are increasingly providing to promote healthy working environments”.

The research found there was no influence on mortality risk for participants from sitting at work, during leisure time or watching television.

The NHS said on its website in advice published last year that there was “increasing evidence” linking excessive sitting with being obese, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and premature death.

It recommends an active break from sitting every 30 minutes, citing expert Professor Stuart Biddle saying: “Sitting needs breaking up.”

“Do some tasks standing, like having coffee and chats, or even writing a letter – Ernest Hemingway wrote his novels standing,” he added. – AFPRelaxnews

Stand Up, Sit Less, Move More.

Posted on by guetpooi

FIRST, THE BAD NEWS

According to the report, published  Annals of Internal Medicine, more than half of the average person’s waking hours are spent sitting: watching television, working at a computer, commuting, or doing other physically inactive pursuits. But all that sitting could be sending us to an early grave—even those folks who exercise up to an hour a day, say the Canadian researchers who did the study.

Over the course of these studies, people who sat for prolonged periods of time had a higher risk of dying from all causes — even those who exercised regularly. The negative effects were even more pronounced in people who did little or no exercise.

The current study documented higher rates of type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cancer-related deaths in very sedentary people. An unrelated study has linked more sitting and less activity with an increased risk of developing dementia.

Fear of an early death doesn’t usually motivate people to change their habits, but losing weight might be an incentive. You burn 30% more calories when you’re standing than when you’re sitting. It’s not a huge amount, but it adds up over time and contributes to weight control, says Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

NOW THE GOOD NEWS

The European Society of Cardiology carries this report on its website on July 31st 2015: “More time spent standing rather than sitting could improve your blood sugar, fats in the blood and cholesterol levels, according to a new study published today (Friday) in the European Heart Journal. The study also shows that replacing time spent sitting with time walking could have additional benefits for your waistline and body mass index (BMI).”

Researchers in Australia have found that:

An extra two hours per day spent standing rather than sitting was associated with approximately 2% lower average fasting blood sugar levels and 11% lower average triglycerides (fats in the blood). Extra standing time was also associated with 0.06 mmol/L higher average levels of the “good” type of cholesterol, HDL, and a 6% lower average total/HDL cholesterol ratio, which indicates an improvement in the total amount of HDL cholesterol in relation to “bad” LDL cholesterol.

Replacing two hours a day of sitting time with stepping was associated with an approximately 11% lower average BMI and a 7.5cm smaller average waist circumference. In addition, average blood sugar levels fell by approximately 11% and average triglycerides by 14% for every two hours spent walking rather than sitting, while HDL cholesterol was 0.10 mmol/L higher. There was no significant effect on BMI or waistline of replacing sitting time with standing.

Professor Francisco Lopez-Jimenez (MD, MSc) of the Mayo Clinic writes that: “A person walking while at work for two hours, standing for another four hours, and performing some daily chores at home for another hour will burn more calories than jogging or running for 60 minutes.”

The message is clear: “Stand Up, Sit Less, Move More.”

PRACTICAL TIPS

If your work involves mostly sitting, here are a few tips to help you to stand up and move more:

  1. Try to do parts of your work standing, especially those parts that can be comfortably done standing, e.g., talking on the phone.
  2. If you need to communicate with your colleague during work, do not email, whatsapp, etc. Walk up to him and deliver the message personally.
  3. Do not move around the office with your butt stuck on the roller-chair. Get up and walk.
  4. Instal an app on your computer or phone to remind you to stand up and move around for one to three minutes every half to three quarter of an hour. What do you do during this time? Well, you can do some of the exercises demonstrated in the video below. Not only will it help with blood circulation, it will also prevent hunch back.

If you are already hunched, the following video may help.

Watching TV is another sedantary activity which needs to be made more active. One way is to instal a treadmill in front of your television. You can then slow walk on the treadmill while watching TV. Otherwise, stand or do a slow march on the spot while watching TV.

For the sake of your health, stand up, sit less, move more until it becomes a second nature to you.

 

 

Good decision making starts with a good night’s sleep

Posted on by guetpooi

If you pride yourself in being able to get by with only a few hours of sleep, or if you think that sleep is a big inconvenience interfering with the many things that you want to do, think again.

Research has shown that bad sleep habits compromise cognition generally and could make you more impulsive, potentially leading to risky behavior in your work and personal life.

In a 2013 paper published in the journal Obesity, a research team concluded that just one night of sleep deprivation led people to purchase more food of greater calorie content than they would had they slept well.

Sleep habits affect self-control. Good self-control allows one to make better choices when presented with conflicting desires and opportunities, and this has far-reaching implications to a person’s career and personal life.

Studies show that dwindling and irregular sleep patterns are to blame for poor decision-making.

 

Read the full report below from TheSun:

“BAD sleep habits could make you more impulsive, potentially leading to risky behavior in your work and personal life, according to a new study.

“Our study explored how sleep habits and self-control are interwoven and how sleep habits and self-control may work together to affect a person’s daily functioning,” says June Pilcher of Clemson University in the US.

Studies have shown that time spent sleeping is dwindling in today’s busy society and that more and more people are adopting irregular sleeping patterns, which is to blame for poor decision-making.

“Exercising self-control allows one to make better choices when presented with conflicting desires and opportunities,” says Pilcher. “That has far-reaching implications to a person’s career and personal life.”

Stable energy reserves come from healthy sleep habits, according to the study, and with that we are less likely to bypass difficult tasks.

While improved performance on the job and better health are clear benefits of regular sleep, the study concluded that substance abuse, gambling and excessive spending could be curbed with proper sleep habits.

The paper was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

In a 2013 paper published in the journal Obesity, a research team concluded that just one night of sleep deprivation led people to purchase more food of greater calorie content than they would had they slept well.

Increased levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin in the blood were present, yet curiously, the team found no correlation between ghrelin and purchasing.

Instead, they pointed to impulsive decision making as the likely culprit of the spending sprees they witnessed.

What’s more, a recent study suggests that individuals with hoarding disorder could be sleep deprived.

“Hoarders typically have problems with decision making and executive function,” said lead author Pamela Thacher of St. Lawrence University in the US.

“Poor sleep is known to compromise cognition generally, so if hoarders have cluttered bedrooms, any existing risk for cognitive dysfunction, depression and stress may increase as sleep quality worsens.”

The study was presented on June 8 in Seattle, Washington in the US during the 29th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC. – AFP Relaxnews

– See more at: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1481959#sthash.6v7qszNZ.dpuf