iamgeekfit

First, a note: studying NEPA's ain't easy to do directly. H. Sesso in the American Journal of Epidemiology this past June noted the difficulty in trying to measure such potentially low intensity activities- like taking the stairs, walking to work, carrying heavy stuff. Sesso was commenting on an article by matthews and co on both exercise related to transpotation (walking, cycling to work) and NEPAs and mortality rates of women as covered in a 5.7 year study of women in Shanghai.

Bottom line: move and your mortality rate goes down. Really, just do "it."

Women reporting no regular exercise but who reported 10 or more metabolic equivalent (MET)-hours/day of nonexercise activity were at 25–50% reduced risk (ptrend < 0.01) relative to less active women (0–9.9 MET-hours/day). Among women reporting the least nonexercise activity (0–9.9 MET-hours/day) but reporting regular exercise participation, exercise was associated with reduced mortality (hazard ratio = 0.78, 95% confidence interval: 0.62, 0.99). These findings add new evidence that overall physical activity levels are an important determinant of longevity, and that health benefit can be obtained through an active lifestyle, exercise, or combinations of both.

So women involved in physical activity that was not "exercise" - like stair climbing, housework, walking to work - the greater the amount (say four hours rather than 2 in a day) the lower (signficantly lower) risk of various mortality causes from cancer to heart attack. And if you do bike to work? A study done back in 2000 showed that folks who biked to work decreased risk of mortality by 40%.

These studies are mainly statistical analysis of other data collected on thousands of people over years.

Meanwhile, the journal Diabetes, has a complementary article (Nov 07), by Hamilton, Hamilton and Zderic on the effects of, effectively, too much sitting. This is so far one of the only in-lab studies of effects of non-activity. The muscular/skeletal impact shown in these unique studies of sitting at long intervals without some NEPAs is not attractive. Sitting too long without going for a walk, getting up, stretching doing SOMETHING had an effect on LPL - liprotein lipase - something that regulates breakdown of fat, regulation of HDL cholstorol and "other metabolic risk factors"

But here's the kicker: there was a bigger effect on LPL in the negative direction from sitting too long than there was in the other from "vigorous exercise." This means being sedantary has just gone from bad to worse. It's not just "doing nothing" means less calories burned, less muscle built, etc; it means the body starts to do negative stuff to the system that has a high recovery cost.

So next time your at your desk, in your bay, wherever you are sitting, get up and do something. Go see someone down the hall (way down the hall); use the washroom two floors down instead of the one just outside the door (take the stairs rather than the elevator); if you drive to work, park further away and walk. Did i say "take the stairs"? That's .075MET hours per flight (met=standard metabolic unit - hours). 4METhrs of NEPA is what reduced mortality rates by 40%. Another way to frame this: cold hard calories: 5 cals potentially for going up the stairs. Go up more flights?

One health expert suggested that if people found a way to carve off just 25 calories a day from their diet it would make a signficant impact over a year. He suggested just don't have that potato chip. Imagine blending that not having a potato chip with taking the stairs rather than the elevator. The math is compelling: 3500 cals in one pound of fat. Shaving 25 calories a day will add up to 9125 cals in a year. That's over a kilo of fat in one year. That's not nothing.

At the end of the day, moving at all has HUGE benefits - and those benefits it seems increasingly clear are now needed to outweigh the serious negatives of sitting around - or taking the elevator.

Here's somewhere where we can provide easy peer support for ourselves and others: when you see your colleagues head for the elevator, invite them to head for the stairs with you. Maybe they'll say thanks for the encouragement, and you'll have started a trend