Heart Matters - To Sit or Not to Sit?

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I have a colleague, let's call her Megan. Because, in fact, her name is Megan.

While writing Day One's "Tall, Dark, Handsome and Not Likely to Die of Heart Failure" blog, Megan emailed me that she was having trouble reconciling why death rates from all causes increased across higher levels of "sitting down" time no matter whether a person smokes or doesn't smoke, used to smoke, drinks, used to drink, doesn't drink, is active or inactive, or how horrendous his Body Mass Index (the measure of body fat based on height and weight) -- which, okay, was still moribund.

In the study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise Megan was analyzing, people who did almost no sitting had no increase in mortality. By contrast, people who spent one-fourth of their time sitting had a 1 percent increase in mortality from cardiovascular disease; people who sat one-half of their time had an increase of 22 percent; three-quarters of their time 47 percent; and full-time sitters a whopping 54 percent increase in mortality. Conclusion? "Physicians should discourage sitting for extended periods."

So the 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five times per week you've been doing religiously isn't doing any good? Really? Seriously? You've got to be kidding? Just shoot me!

Thankfully, the gravity connection from the upright "tall study," had some interesting implications. Gravity impacts the cardiovascular systems of people lying down or sitting up differently. In the same way that a 5-foot-7-inches guy, built like fire hydrant, has a higher risk for heart disease than a streamlined tall guy, sitting can be seen as morphing into a less-efficient cardiovascular shape.