Women who sit too much 'raise their mortality risk' - even if they exercise

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Sitting for too long can raise the risk of an early death in women, new research has found. It has been proven that a living sedentary lifestyle with little physical activity can contribute to poor health.

Previous research has found that people can live longer if they move every 20 minutes. Now, a rigorous new study has found that women who sit for nearly 11.7 hours in one day raised their risk of death by 30 per cent, even if they partake in vigorous exercise.

Findings based on decades-long observations indicate that regular workouts aren't enough to counteract the negative health impacts of sitting, be it on the couch or at a desk.Sedentary behaviour, defined as any waking behaviour involving sitting or reclining and low energy output, is a health risk because it reduces muscle contractions, blood flow and slows metabolism.“When you're sitting, the blood flow throughout your body slows down, decreasing glucose uptake," explained study leader Professor Andrea La Croix of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health at University of California San Diego."Your muscles aren't contracting as much, so anything that requires oxygen consumption to move the muscles diminishes, and your pulse rate is low."According to the study, whether women participated in low or high amounts of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, they showed the same heightened risk if they sat for long hours.Professor LaCroix added: “If I take a brisk long walk for an hour but sit the rest of the day, I'm still accruing all the negative effects on my metabolism."To come to conclusions, published in the Journal Of the American Heart Association last week, study co-author Steve Nguyen, of UC San Diego's of Herbert Wertheim School of Public