Fitting in a workout after a long day at a desk may not sufficiently counteract the harmful effects of sedentary behavior on heart health, according to a new study from Mass General Brigham. The study, published Friday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that excessive sedentary behavior, which researchers defined as waking activity with low energy expenditure while an individual is sitting, reclining, or lying down, is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, particularly heart failure and cardiovascular death. The researchers examined the relationship between daily sitting time and future risk of four common cardiovascular diseases: atrial fibrillation, heart attack, heart failure, and cardiovascular death.
They classified sedentary behavior using a machine learning algorithm. More than 10.6 sedentary hours per day 9.
4 to 10.6 sedentary hours per day 8.2 to 9.
4 sedentary hours per day Less than 8.2 sedentary hours per day “Sedentary risk remained even in people who were physically active, which is important because many of us sit a lot and think that if we can get out at the end of the day and do some exercise we can counterbalance it. However, we found it to be more complex than that,” Ajufo stated in the press release.
The researchers’ analysis found that sedentary behavior was associated with a higher risk of all four types of heart disease, with a 40 percent to 60 percent greater risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death observed .
