Time spent sitting, reclining or lying down during the day could increase a person’s risk of heart disease and death, a new study warns. More than 10 and a half hours of sedentary behavior is significantly linked with future heart failure and heart-related death, even among people who are getting the recommended amount of exercise, researchers report. “Our findings support cutting back on sedentary time to reduce cardiovascular risk, with 10.6 hours a day marking a potentially key threshold tied to higher heart failure and cardiovascular mortality,” said co-senior researcher Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “Too much sitting or lying down can be harmful for heart health, even for those who are active.” These results jibe with another study published recently in the journal PLOS One, which found that the aging of people’s hearts hastened as they spent more time sitting. This occurred even if people met minimum daily exercise recommendations. For the new study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 90,000 people participating in the U.K. Biobank ongoing research project. The average sedentary time per day was 9.4 hours for the participants. After an average follow-up of eight years, about 5% developed an irregular heartbeat, 2% developed heart failure, just under 2% suffered a heart attack and about 1% died of heart-related disease, researchers found. Sedentary behavior steadily increased…  read on >  read on >

If you’re over 40 and raise your levels of exercise to that of the top 25% of your peers, you might gain an average of five more years of life, a new study calculates. For over-40 folks in the lowest level of daily activity, a similar move could bring an average 11 extra years, the same report found. The study results surprised even its Australian authors. “Our findings suggest that [physical activity] provides substantially larger health benefits than previously thought,” wrote a team led by Lennert Veerman. He’s a professor public health at Griffith University School of Medicine and Dentistry in Gold Coast, Queensland. The new study focused on U.S. data: Information on daily physical activity gleaned from “activity trackers” worn by participants aged 40 and above in 2003 to 2006 federal health surveys; and data on U.S. deaths from 2017 and 2019, also recorded in federal databanks. Veerman’s team calculated that daily levels of physical activity (in whatever form) that placed people in the top 25% in terms of fitness was equal to about 2 hours and 40 minutes of normal-paced (3 miles per hour) walking. The researchers calculated that if everyone over 40 suddenly matched this activity level, it would raise everyone’s expected life span by five years — from the 78.6 years it’s now estimated to be to nearly 84 years. Of…  read on >  read on >

Bottoms up: The type of alcohol you prefer may say something about your lifestyle, new research reveals. Beer drinkers are more likely to have an unhealthy lifestyle than folks who prefer wine or liquor, scientists report. Beer drinkers have lower-quality diets, are less active and are more likely to smoke than those who drink wine, liquor or a combination, researchers found. Those lifestyle factors can make a big difference in the health of people who are already drinking too much and risking getting liver disease, said lead researcher Dr. Madeline Novack. “Alcohol overuse is the leading cause of [liver] cirrhosis in the U.S., and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease [MASLD] is rapidly increasing,” said Novack, chief resident of Tulane School of Medicine’s internal medicine residency program. “Both types of liver disease often coexist, and lifestyle changes are key to managing and preventing these conditions, starting with understanding the link between alcohol use and poor nutrition,” Novack added in a Tulane news release. For the study, researchers analyzed national survey data on more than 1,900 U.S. adults who drink alcohol. The respondents answered detailed questions on their eating habits. About 39% said they only drink beer, 22% wine, 18% liquor and 21% a combination of alcohol types, researchers said. None of the drinkers came close to achieving the 80-point score that’s considered an adequately healthy diet…  read on >  read on >

It doesn’t take much: Adding just five minutes of exercise to your daily routine lowers your blood pressure and might cut your odds for heart disease, new research shows. “The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn’t take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure,” said study lead author Jo Blodgett, from University College London (UCL). “What’s unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from climbing the stairs to a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.” Her team published its findings Nov. 6 in the journal Circulation. According to the researchers, high blood pressure affects almost 1.3 billion adults globally and is one of the biggest causes of premature death due to stroke and other causes. The new study focused on almost 15,000 adult volunteers who were given activity trackers to chart their daily involvement in six key activities: Sleep Sedentary behavior (such as sitting) Slow walking (less than 100 steps per minute) Fast walking (100 steps per minute or more) Standing More vigorous exercise (such as running, cycling or stair climbing) Each day, the average participant got seven hours of sleep, 10 hours of sedentary behavior such as sitting, three hours of standing, one hour of slow walking, one hour of fast walking and just 16 minutes of…  read on >  read on >

There’s just something about sitting. New research shows that too much time on sofas and chairs harms the heart — even among people who get the minimum recommended amount of daily exercise. “Taking a quick walk after work may not be enough” to offset the health dangers of sitting, said study lead author Chandra Reynolds. She’s a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Her team published its findings recently in the journal PLOS One. The data comes from an ongoing study of over a thousand former or current Coloradans, 730 of who are twins. Reynolds’ team focused on participants aged 28 to 49. Study lead author Ryan Bruellman said the cohort was relatively young, because “young adults tend to think they are impervious to the impacts of aging. But what you do during this critical time of life matters.” Bruellman is now a PhD candidate at the University of California, Riverside. A lot of the participants were sitting a lot of the time: An average of almost nine hours per day, according to the study. Exercise rates ranged from 80 and 160 minutes of moderate physical activity per week and less than 135 minutes of vigorous exercise weekly.  The Boulder team then assessed each person’s “heart age” using two key heart health indicators: total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein and body mass…  read on >  read on >