Health & Wellness

If You're Sitting All Day, Science Shows How to Undo the Health Risks. Take ‘Activity Snacks' Every 30 Minutes.

People who walked for five minutes every half hour had lower blood sugar and blood pressure than those who sat continuously

A short stroll every half hour may help undo the health harms associated with prolonged periods of sitting, a new study finds.

Mounting evidence has suggested that sitting for long periods of time — an inescapable fact of life for many workers — is hazardous to health even for those who exercise regularly.

In the new study, volunteers who got up and walked for five minutes every half hour had lower blood sugar and blood pressure than those who sat continuously. The researchers also found that walking for one minute every hour helped with blood pressure, but not blood sugar, according to the small study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

“If you have a job that requires you to sit most of the day or have a largely sedentary lifestyle, this is one strategy that could improve your health and offset the health harms from sitting,” said the study’s lead author, Keith Diaz, an associate professor of behavioral medicine at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

Contact Us