Doctors and sociologists have recently begun to comprehensively study how a sedentary lifestyle and low level of physical activity affect people's lives. In particular, five years ago scientists proved that hypodynamia and a sedentary lifestyle significantly raise a possibility of getting diabetes, as well as heart and vascular diseases.
Scientists gathered a group of five hundred elderly and middle-aged female volunteers, handed them belts with built-in accelerometers and observed them for several weeks.
Diabetes and Sofa
The data obtained by these devices allowed the scientists not only to evaluate how much time women spent sitting in an armchair or sofa, but also track the typical duration of each period of immobility. Having had compared these data with medical indicators American doctors revealed several interesting patterns.
Their calculations showed that the blood sugar level and sensitivity of women’s body cells to insulin did not primarily depend on the general level of immobility, but on how much time they spent on the couch or in chair without getting up. In this case every 15 minutes of sitting increased blood sugar by 1% in women of European descent, and 5% - in women from Latin American countries.
The concentration of insulin in blood was rising in a similar way: over the same period, it increased by 7%, and the level of immunity to this hormone rose by 9% in all participants in the experiment. As scientists emphasize, the growth rate of these indicators fell significantly if women took breaks by getting up every once in a while.
Therefore, scientists believe that doctors and healthcare employees must convince women that they should get up as often as possible and sit less often, which is especially true for older women. For this, as experts emphasize, it is not necessary to be into sports. A positive effect was also observed when the research participants were engaged in any activity, including cleaning or cooking.
Source: https://nauka.tass.ru/nauka/7778471
Photos are from open sources.
