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Stand Up for Your Health: How to Lessen the

Risks of Too Much Sitting

9 HORA PASA , 14 DI JUNI 2018 14:01
SECCION: INTERNATIONAL

You know that foggy, unfocused feeling you get after sitting too long at your desk? It may very
well be your brain getting thinner, reducing its ability to process thoughts and memory,
according to new research.

In a study by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), researchers associated long periods
of sitting with the thickness of the brain’s medial temporal lobe (MTL), the region in which
memory is processed. The UCLA researchers studied 35 women and men between 45 and 75
years old who sat on average 7.2 hours a day. Thinner MTLs were associated with study
participants who sat for long periods. This part of the brain naturally thins with age, but this

thinning is linked to memory loss.

While several studies have linked sedentary behavior with increased cardiovascular risk factors,
including high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, this is the first to look at sitting’s affect on

brain health.

“Sedentary behaviors appear to have direct effects on neurobiological processes,” states the
study published in the Public Library of Science journal One.

Today, Americans spend an average of 13 hours a day being sedentary. Excessive sitting can

contribute to more than 30 chronic diseases, according to James A. Levine, M.D., Ph.D., a
physician and researcher who invented the treadmill desk. Getting up and moving more can
help reverse these consequences, he says.

Ways to Prevent ‘Sitting Disease’

The term “sitting disease” has been coined by the scientific community and is commonly used to
refer to metabolic syndrome and the ill-effects of an overly sedentary lifestyle. Taking breaks to
move helps rev up metabolism, improve posture and increase blood flow.

“Incorporating just 15 minutes of movement into the day can relieve a lot of aches and pains