- Researchers report that any activity is more beneficial to heart health than sitting, including sleeping.
- Experts say daily activity can help with blood pressure, glucose levels, and muscle strength.
- They say that even taking 5-minute walking breaks during the workday can be beneficial.
Baseball great Satchel Paige famously said “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
In other words: keep moving.
That’s the theme of a new study that states any activity — even sleeping — is better for the heart than sitting.
Supported by the British Heart Foundation and published today in the European Heart Journal, the study’s authors say their research is the first to assess how different movement patterns throughout the 24-hour day are linked to heart health.
The researchers say it’s the first evidence to emerge from the international Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep (ProPASS) consortium.
In their study, University College London scientists analyzed data from six studies, encompassing 15,246 people from five countries, to see how movement across the day is associated with heart health.
Each participant wore a device on their thigh measuring their activity throughout the 24-hour day and had their heart health measured.
Heart health was measured using six outcomes: body-mass index (BMI), waist circumference, HDL cholesterol, HDL-to-total cholesterol ratio, triglycerides, and HbA1c.
The study identified behaviors making up a typical 24-hour day, with time spent doing moderate-vigorous activity providing the most benefit to heart health, followed by light activity, standing, and sleeping. All were compared with the adverse impact of sedentary behavior.
The team modeled…
Read the full article here