Posted on 02/22/2014 6:33:22 AM PST by daniel1212
If you're 60 and older, every additional hour a day you spend sitting is linked to doubling the risk of being disabled -- regardless of how much moderate exercise you get, reports a new Northwestern Medicine® study.
The study is the first to show sedentary behavior is its own risk factor for disability, separate from lack of moderate vigorous physical activity. In fact, sedentary behavior is almost as strong a risk factor for disability as lack of moderate exercise.
If there are two 65-year-old women, one sedentary for 12 hours a day and another sedentary for 13 hours a day, the second one is 50 percent more likely to be disabled, the study found.
"This is the first time we've shown sedentary behavior was related to increased disability regardless of the amount of moderate exercise," said Dorothy Dunlop, professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "Being sedentary is not just a synonym for inadequate physical activity."
Disability affects more than 56 million Americans. It's defined by limitations in being able to do basic activities such as eating, dressing or bathing oneself, getting in and out of bed and walking across a room. Disability increases the risk of hospitalization and institutionalization and is a leading source of health care costs, accounting for $1 in $4 spent.
The study will be published February 19 in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health.
The finding -- that being sedentary was almost as strong a risk factor for disability as lack of moderate vigorous activity -- surprised Dunlop.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
“It seems at least as likely that older persons who already suffer from conditions that will ultimately manifest as ‘disability’ will, as a consequence, be more inclined to be sedentary.”
Hmmm...I might have to dash off a note to my HS classmate, Rowland (aka “Bing”) Chang, MD pointing this out!
I have a pretty severe case of ME/CFS and I must put extreme limitations on sustained activity of any kind beyond about 2 minutes or I will suffer an even more debilitating relapse lasting up to a week.
Rather than walking around while talking on the phone as suggested by this article, I must lie down to avoid the combined mental/physical stress of the mental activity of phone social interaction with the physical effort of breathing while talking. Pretty pathetic, huh?
I make sure that every day I walk up 4 flights of stairs (65 steps) to my apartment, which I can do in 2 minutes if I do is slowly and deliberately. And I do 5 each of push-ups, back-lifts and jackknife sit-ups.
In addition I eat as little as possible to avoid weight gain with a very high proportion of chicken and fish protein in my diet. I weigh the same now as I did 13 years ago when I became disabled from ME/CFS.
So according to this study I am still DOOMED! Oh joy.
> If you’re 60 and older, every additional hour a day you spend sitting is linked to doubling the risk of being disabled
Our risk of being disabled in old age is easy to calculate — take 100 percent and subtract the percentage of seniors who just drop dead. I think I’ll go out and shovel some snow though.
I wonder if they made the determination that the level of disability was due to being sedentary, or if being disabled led to being more sedentary.....
I’m late to the party, I see.
After spending some time caring for my m-i-l after an accident last year, and seeing the number of old people (of which I am becoming one against my will) who needed canes and walkers and wheelchairs, I determine that if I ended up that incapacitated, it would NOT be because of anything I did or did not do.
I thought to myself, *God help me. No disrespect to them, but I am NOT going to end up in that condition if I have anything to say about it*. So I’ve been working out 2-3 times a week for strength training, shoveling when I don’t do that, and walking when there is somewhere free from snow to walk.
Now, I also realize, that that generation was not into exercise and fitness as we are, so I’m interested in how working out and walking and gardening deliberately for the exercise, will affect those of us who do.
That has been the question many raised here.
Yes, you do not want to end up like this poor thing:
:)
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