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Validated by more than 60,000 Japanese people, “Too much sitting time increases the risk of death”

2021.10.01

Are you spending more time at home, especially sitting at home, due to remote work orrefraining from going out?
Recently, the harmful effects of sitting too long have been reported.
The longer you sit, the more likely you are to develop obesity, diabetes, cancer,
cerebrovascular disease, dementia, etc., and the risk of death increases. The results of such research have been reported and discussed in the media such as television, magazines, and
books.
However, although the number of research results targeting Japanese people has been small, the results of research targeting more than 60,000 Japanese people have recently been reported.
As a result, it seems that the length of sitting time and the risk of death were related.

Relationship between sitting time and death risk

This research was presented by a research group led by Akihide Koyama, a lecturer in community health and medical epidemiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine.
Using data from 64,456 people (29,022 men and 35,434 women) who were followed up for an average of 7.7 years regarding the health status and lifestyle of Japanese people through questionnaires, etc., as to the relationship between “the length of sitting time during the day” and “all causes of death”, the relationship between the two was investigated according to the
presence or absence of lifestyle-related diseases (hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes).
As a result, the following three things became clear.
① The longer you sit during the day, the higher your risk of death.
(2) The risk of death increases as the number of people with hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes increases, but the risk of death increases as the sitting time during the day increases, regardless of the presence or absence of these.
③ Even if you increase the amount of physical activity in your leisure time, you cannot suppress the relationship between the length of sitting time during the day and the risk of
death.

An increase in sitting time by 2 hours elevates mortality risk by 15%

In this study, the sitting time during the day was divided into four groups: “less than 5 hours”, “5 to less than 7 hours”, “7 to less than 9 hours”, and “more than 9 hours”.
As a result, every two hours of sitting during the day increased the risk of death by 15%.
Also, if you have one or more lifestyle-related diseases, the risk of death, which increases with every two hours of sitting during the day, increases further, with 18% of people with
dyslipidemia. The rate for people with high blood pressure Increased by 20%, and those with diabetes increased by 27%. In addition, people with dyslipidemia, high blood pressure, and
diabetes have a 42% increased risk of death for every two hours of sitting during the day.

Weekend exercise does not cancel out

“I spend a lot of time sitting at my desk during the day on weekdays, but sometimes I go to the gym after work and play sports on weekends.”
This describes many people.
The study also examines whether increased physical activity can reduce the risk of death from sitting longer. Unfortunately, the result was that increasing physical activity had little effect on reducing the risk of death.
This means that even if you go to the gym or play sports on the weekends, the negative effects will remain as long as you sit for a long time.
There are many people who have stopped commuting due to the increase in telecommuting due to the corona virus disaster.
When working from home, what you need is within reach while sitting, and some people will be able to function almost normally while just sitting. It is important to create a habit of getting up regularly, such as once every 30 minutes.
There is a time management technique called “Pomodoro technique”, in which you concentrate on your work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes. This is aimed
at maintaining concentration and improving productivity. How about using this method as a habit to move your body during a 5-minute break?

◎ Reference
Kyoto Prefectural University, Japan Multicenter Cohort Study Secretariat “The longer you sit,
the higher the risk of death”
https://www.kpu-m.ac.jp/doc/news/2021/files/27489.pdf

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