By Amber Roman
03 Nov 2024, 12:00 PM EST
In modern life, the sedentary lifestyle has become a constant for young adults, especially those born between 1981 and 1996. The millennial generation, by spending long hours in front of screens for work and entertainment, accumulates an average of more than 60 hours a week in a sitting position.
New research conducted in collaboration between the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California at Riverside, published in PLOS One, warns about the long-term consequences of this routine on cardiovascular health and metabolic aging.
The research, which included a detailed analysis of more than 1,000 young and middle adults, including 730 pairs of twins, explored how prolonged sitting affects key health indicators such as cholesterol levels and body mass index ( BMI).
The findings reveal that the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle are not offset by simply meeting minimum physical activity recommendations. According to the study, spending about 20 minutes a day doing moderate exercise, such as walking, is not enough to mitigate the impact of excessive sitting.
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Lead researcher Chandra Reynolds, professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder, emphasizes that “Sitting less throughout the day and increasing the intensity of exercise can be key to reduce the risk of premature aging in young adults.
Concern about these effects in people under 50 motivated lead author Ryan Bruellman, a doctoral student at UC Riverside, to investigate the implications of a sedentary lifestyle in his generation.
“Young adults often think that they are protected from aging by their active metabolism, but what we do at this stage of life has a significant impact later in life,” Bruellman said.
In the research, the participants, between 28 and 49 years old and with an average age of 33 years, detailed their physical activity habits and sedentary time. The results showed that the majority of respondents sit for approximately 9 hours a day, with some sitting for up to 16 hours without interruption.
The amount of weekly physical activity ranged from 80 to 160 minutes of moderate exercise and about 135 minutes of vigorous activity.. These values reflect a higher average than the national average, as Colorado is one of the states with the most active lifestyle in the US.
The researchers focused on two specific indicators to measure metabolic and cardiac aging: total cholesterol, including high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and BMI. They discovered that, generally speaking, the longer a person sits, the faster they tend to show signs of metabolic and cardiovascular aging.
Additionally, participants who met physical activity recommendations but sat for eight or more hours a day They were more likely to develop heart disease in the future.
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