For Arteries’ Sake: Walk Five Minutes For Every Hour You Sit

OK, it feels good to sit down, but sitting for long periods of time, as most of us do, is not good for you. According to experts at Indiana University’s School of Public Health, sitting for long periods is associated with risk factors such as higher cholesterol levels and “greater waist circumference”– meaning fat, that can lead to cardiovascular and metabolic disease. Here’s one reason why: when people sit, slack muscles do not contract to effectively pump blood to the heart, so blood can pool in the legs and affect the ability of blood vessels to expand from increased blood flow. Yes, a bad thing. What to do about it? Researchers at the school put 11 healthy men between the ages of 20 and 35 through two tests: In one, the men sat for three hours without moving their legs, while researchers used a blood pressure cuff and ultrasound technology to measure the functionality of the femoral artery at baseline and again at the one-, two- and three-hour mark. In the second, the men sat during a three-hour period but also walked on a treadmill for five minutes at a speed of 2 mph at the 30-minute mark, 1.5-hour mark and 2.5-hour mark. Again, researchers measured the functionality of the femoral artery at the same intervals as in the other trial. What did they find?  For those who just sat and did not walk, the main artery in the legs was impaired by as much as 50 percent after just one hour. Yet those who walked for five minutes for each hour of sitting saw their arterial function stay the same — it did not drop throughout the three-hour period. Got it? Now get up.