Recipe for Health: Sit Less, Sleep More

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What do sitting less and sleeping more have in common? And why would this be a recipe for health?

Sitting and sleeping are related to increased risk for chronic health concerns such as obesity, diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular problems, certain types of cancer and a lessened longevity. 

Why would this be? It’s because of the way our metabolisms work. Both sitting the right amount of time and sleeping the right amount of time trigger our metabolisms to do the things necessary to see that our bodies work well and stay healthy.

The foot is a common link between sitting and sleeping. You see, the foot is a motion detector. Sensors in the feet add to other signals informing the rest of the body that we’re up and about. Pressure sensed by the feet provides a request that our metabolisms create the resources necessary to get us where we want to go. Sit too much and metabolism becomes inactive leading to disregulation of basic metabolic components (blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol and waistline size)

As we sleep, the pressure sensing capabilities of the feet are turned down. Moving about is not necessary. Sleep restores our bodies as decreased are basic components of metabolism such as glucose utilization, blood pressure as well as heart rate and sympathetic nervous activity. Hormones that regulate appetite and energy expenditure, important to weight control, are activated. 

Sleep too little and restorative time is shortened. As we lay awake, the pressure sensors of the feet remain on alert with metabolism on daytime settings as well. Research shows those who fail to sleep enough are 55% more likely to experience metabolic syndrome, abnormal measures for 3 of the 5 basic metabolic components. 

People with metabolic syndrome are two to three times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes; twice as likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke and more than three times as likely to die early from those causes. Those with metabolic risk factors in middle age have poorer cognitive function, suggestive of dementia or Alzheimer’s later in life.

What’s a person to do to stay healthy? Actually think about your body and its schedule. Make sleep a priority. Seven hours of sleep a night is recommended. Move more during the day. Take breaks from sitting, preferably 2 minutes every 20 minutes. Your glucose and blood pressure levels as well as musculoskeletal system will thank you. Walk 15 minutes after each meal. Aim for two hours more up and about time than you now do. 

Un-Sitting May Not Be All that Simple

Sitting less to lose weight, improve one’s well being and/or lessen risk for a long list of health maladies may not be as simple as, well, sitting less. Walking when taking a break from sitting expends more calories and does more good than standing still.

Research noted by New York Times reporter Gretchen Reymolds showed that those who stood up while taking a break from sitting expended only 8 or 9 calories more in an hour than they did while they were seated for an hour. When they took a break and walked, however, they expended 130 more calories than while seated.

Why would these be? Inactivity researcher Dr. Marc Hamilton found answers to such questions when he studied what happens to inactive mice. Mice whose hind legs were inactive for a day showed  a change in levels of an enzyme in their bloodstreams. The levels of the enzyme were one-tenth of that for active mice. The enzyme, lipoprotein lipase, metabolizes fat and is an indicator of moving muscles. Humans share the enzyme with mice. 

The less one’s movement the lower the levels of the enzyme. Lower levels are linked to a myriad of lifestyle conditions: atherosclerosis, obesity, Alzheimer’s Disease, metabolic syndrome, and a low HDL (“good fat”) / high LDL (“bad fat”) condition associated with diabetes and insulin resistance. 

Next time you take a break from sitting, take full advantage of your time. Don’t just stand there. Walk.

How Many Calories We Burn When We Sit, Stand or Walk

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS date published JUNE 22, 2016 5:02 AM date updated

June 22, 2016 5:02 am

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/how-many-calories-we-burn-when-we-sit-stand-or-walk/?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fgretchen-reynolds&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=25&pgtype=collection

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1515193616/reflexologyreseaA/

How Boost Your Metabolism

Stand up. Now walk. You have just had a positive effect on your metabolism. Standing and walking take more energy than sitting. 

The next question is: how much standing and walking are needed to create change in your metabolism? We’ve written an entire book to answer that question but here are some brief ideas.

Take breaks from sitting

Taking breaks from sitting re-sets the five measures of metabolism of the body improving cholesterol, triglycerides, waistline, blood sugar and blood pressure.

How often? In general those who take the most breaks during the day had better biomarkers for metabolism and a lessened risk for heart disease and diabetes. Even standing up for one minute might help lower the risk for metabolic syndrome notes researcher Dr. Geraldine Healy.

Preferable is taking a break in sitting every 20 minutes of two minutes with movement or walking in place. Not only is metabolism elected but so too are muscles, tendons and joints stretched out of place by sitting too much. 

Fidgeting

It turns out that the positives and negatives of sitting are not as simple as counting time spent doing it. What one does while sitting is important too. Research suggests fidgeting while sitting may be beneficial to metabolism.

According to one study, “Fidgeting is typically defined as involving small movements, especially of the hands and feet, often through nervousness, restlessness, or impatience. … The current results suggest that more complex movements of the hands and feet may be important to measure, in addition to level of physical activity (sitting time).”

Fidgeting expends more calories than sitting still—118 calories an hour versus 80. Calorie consumption is linked to metabolism with more calories indicating more demand on metabolism. Research results showing sitting while reading or using a computer is less impactful on metabolism. It could be the benefit of intellectual stimulation while sitting.

Previous research about fidgeting while sitting showed those who sit motionless consume 80 calories an hour while those who fidget while sitting consume 118

Take steps to be impact metabolism

For every 1,000 steps taken during or 30 minutes of lifestyle activities of daily living (cooking, washing dishes, ironing, and other routine tasks at home or work done while standing or walking), there is a reduced risk for elevated measures of metabolism. 

• Reduces the risk of elevated triglycerides by15%

• Reduces the risk of low HDL (good cholesterol) by 12%

• Reduces the risk of elevated waist circumference (more than 40” for men and 35” for women) by 16%

• Reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome by 13%

(People with metabolic syndrome (abnormal measurements for three of the five metabolic biomarkers) are two to three times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes; twice as likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke and more than three times as likely to die early from those causes. Those with metabolic risk factors in middle age have poorer cognitive function, suggestive of dementia or Alzheimer’s later in life.)

• No association was found between lifestyle minutes or steps and levels of blood pressure or glucose.

Lessen uninterrupted sitting time especially television watching time
Consider how much time you spend sitting while watching television, talking or texting on the cell phone, playing video games or surfing the Internet. 

One study found that each hour of television viewing increases the risk of metabolic syndrome by: 21% for women and 26% for men.

Another study found that men with more than four hours per day screen time (television, computer, playing video games) outside of work have:

• 94% higher odds (virtually double) of having metabolic syndrome
• 88% higher odds of elevated waist circumference
• 84% higher odds of low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)
• 55% higher odds of high blood pressure
• 32% higher odds of elevated glucose

Compared to women who sit less than 1 hour per day watching television and using the computer outside of work, those who sit more than 4 hours per day and do not exercise have a 54% higher odds of metabolic syndrome.

Un-Sit Your Life http://tinyurl.com/un-sit-your-life