If you also sit all day long, then your health can also be affected badly.

New York : To reduce the negative effects of sitting, take a light walk for five minutes every half hour. This important conclusion has come out in our new research, which has been published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. We asked 11 healthy middle-aged and older adults to sit in our lab for five days for the ideal eight hours of working time. On day one, the participants sat for a full eight hours, with only brief breaks to go to the urinal. For the rest of the day, we tried different strategies to break his habit of sitting and go for light walks. For example, on one day we asked participants to walk for one minute every half hour, while on another day they were asked to walk for five minutes every hour. Our objective was to find out if the minimum amount of walking can reduce the health effects of sedentary work. Specifically, we measured blood sugar levels and blood pressure during this period, which are important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. We found that five minutes of light walking every half hour is the only strategy that can lower blood pressure and blood sugar compared to sitting all day. Specifically, walking for five minutes every half hour reduced the postprandial rise in blood sugar by up to 60 percent. – Keith Diaz, Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University

Decreased blood pressure by four to five points

This strategy also reduced blood pressure by four to five points compared to sitting throughout the day, but walking for shorter but irregular periods also improves blood pressure. Even walking for one minute every hour was shown to reduce blood pressure by five points. Along with physical health benefits, walking at regular intervals also has a positive effect on mental health. During the study, we also assessed the mental status of the participants with the help of a questionnaire. We found that walking for five minutes every half hour left participants feeling less tired and in a better mood, and helped them remain more energetic, compared to sitting for the rest of the day. We’ve found that even taking a short walk every hour can improve mood and reduce fatigue.

why does it matter

People who work sitting for long hours become victims of other serious diseases including diabetes and heart. People who work sitting all day have a higher rate of the above diseases than those who walk all day. Low physical activity also increases the risk of premature death and daily exercise alone cannot eliminate the ill effects of sitting. The amount of time adults spend sitting at work has increased steadily over the decades in countries such as the United States due to advances in technology.