Extra Hours of Sitting Can Put You at Risk to Type-2 Diabetes

A recent study published in Diabetologia says a normal sedentary behavior can lead to type-2 diabetes. The study proved that every extra hour of sitting could lead to more diabetes. It bewares people to avoid sedentary position for long in their study or while using computers.

In an experiment to know the relationship between the duration of a sedentary behavior and resulting metabolic syndrome, 2,000 participants with an average age of 60 were given a standard glucose tolerance test after an overnight fast to determine their diabetes status. To know about metabolic syndrome, the researcher measured waist circumference, HDL-cholesterol levels, fasting glucose levels, blood pressure, and medication use.

Next, the participants were asked to wear an activPAL3 accelerometer on their thighs all day for eight consecutive days. Through the device, researchers were able to measure daily amount of participants’ posture, total sedentary time, and total sedentary breaks during waking time, prolonged bouts of sedentary breaks, and the average duration of those breaks.

The result disclosed that most of the participants, 58% had normal glucose metabolism, while 15% had an impaired glucose metabolism and 714 participants suffered type-2 diabetes. Researchers found diabetes risk increased by 22% for every extra hour spent sitting.

“The pattern in which sedentary time was accumulated, as expressed by number of sedentary breaks, number of prolonged sedentary bouts and average sedentary bout duration, was only weakly associated with an increased risk for the metabolic syndrome, future studies in participants with type 2 diabetes should be conducted to confirm our results, and to explore dose–response relationships and causality”, said a researcher.