Sitting All Day? Set Aside an Hour

An hour of exercise each day may be enough to counter the ill health effects of sitting for eight hours or more, a new study found.

And that could be good news for those with office jobs or long commutes — prolonged sitting has been tied to problems like heart disease, diabetes and early death in past research.

But, according to this University of Cambridge study, exercising moderately for at least an hour a day might be enough to keep your health on track after sitting for most of the day. 

The researchers behind this study looked at 16 past studies to draw their conclusions. Those study participants who exercised for 60 to 75 minutes each day appeared to erase their increased risk of early death from sitting for more than eight hours.

However, these researchers found that the majority of study participants did not get an hour of exercise per day.

Talk to your doctor about how to safely incorporate exercise into your daily schedule.

This study was published recently in The Lancet. 

The study authors disclosed no outside funding sources. Information on potential conflicts of interest was not available at the time of publication.