Reduce sitting to reduce triglycerides

We all know that too much sitting can result in harming our health. If you had to add up the total number of hours each day you spend – at your job, driving, watching TV, with friends – the amount of time you are in a seated position would probably scare you.  Here are a few reasons why excessive sitting is not exactly a health booster:

·      Weak abdominal muscles – When standing or moving, the abdominal muscles keep us upright.  But when sitting, many of us tend to slump leading to weak abs.  Tight back muscles and unused abs hurt posture by exaggerating the spine’s natural arch, a condition called hyperlordosis, or swayback.

·      Tight hips – Flexible hips keep us balanced but chronic sitting leads to hip flexor muscles in front that rarely extend becoming short and tight.  This limits range of motion and stride length.  Decreased hip mobility is a main reason elderly people tend to fall.

·      Soft glutes – Sitting on your bum all day does absolutely nothing for it.  When our glutes get weak and soft, this hurt stability and the ability to push off and the ability to maintain a powerful stride.

·      Poor circulation in the legs – If a good chunk of our day is spent sitting, those long periods of time idle slows blood circulation.  Fluids tend to pool in the legs resulting in swollen ankles and varicose veins to dangerous blood clots called deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

·      Soft, weak bones – Bones require weight-bearing activities frequently throughout the day such as walking and running to stimulate hip and lower-body bones to grow thicker, denser, and stronger. 

·      Neck strain – If most of your daily work is spent seated in front of a computer or on the phone, you’re likely to crane your neck forward toward the keyboard or tilt your heat to cradle a phone putting strain on the cervical vertebrae

Excessive sitting and high triglycerides

Here is one more way that long spells of sitting can is not encouraged – it can cause a rise in your triglycerides.  Triglycerides are the most common type of fat in the body and are an important measure of heart health. Triglycerides come from certain foods and they are also produced naturally in the body by the liver.  When you eat, calories that are not used as energy are converted into triglycerides and stored as fat.  Eating more calories than we need or what we burn, can lead to high triglycerides known as hypertriglyceridemia.

Why does having a high triglyceride number matter to your health? A high triglyceride level may contribute to atherosclerosis or thickening of the artery walls which increases the risk of a stroke, heart attack and heart disease.  If the triglyceride number is above 1000 mg/dl, this is a risk factor for acute pancreatitis.

Other medical conditions that could be attributed to a high triglyceride level are poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, hypothyroidism, liver or kidney disease, or rare genetic conditions that affect how your body converts fat to energy.  Certain medications such as birth control pills, beta blockers, diuretics, or steroids could also cause a side effect of high triglyceride levels. 

Recent study on too much sitting and its effect on triglycerides

A study from New Zealand in the Journal of clinical Lipidology, found that big rises in triglycerides after meals are associated with increased cardiovascular risk. In the study, 36 adults who had primarily sedentary occupations went through four seven-hour scenarios:

·      Continual sitting (getting up only for bathroom visits

·      Continual sitting followed by a 30-minute brisk walk

·      Sitting with two-minute walking breaks every 30 minutes

·      Sitting with two-minute breaks plus the 30-minute walk afterward

The next day, after consuming a high-fat breakfast, they repeated the scenarios for five hours (but with no 30-minute walk). Blood samples were collected hourly to measure triglycerides, insulin, and other factors.

Compared to just prolonged sitting, taking walking breaks resulted in a 7 percent reduction in post-meal triglycerides. Combining the breaks and the 30-minute walk lowered them by 11 percent.  Taking a 30-minute walk the first day, by itself, had no effect on subsequent triglyceride levels, though like the other two intervention it improved insulin response somewhat.  Basically, regular activity breaks, physical activity, and especially the two combined have the potential to facilitate a more favorable metabolic environment, which if maintained over months or years, may be enough to explain why individuals who regularly break up sedentary time have better cardio metabolic health outcomes. 

How to know if your triglycerides are high

A blood test is necessary to measure triglycerides. To get a good reading you will need to fast for nine to 12 hours before blood can be drawn for an accurate triglyceride reading.  Below are the different levels and numbers that you will need to know what range your triglycerides are in:

·      Optimal – less than 100 mg/dl

·      Normal – less than 150 mg/dl

·      Borderline high – 150-199 mg/dl

·      High – 200-499 mg/dl

·      Very high – more than 500 mg/dl

Ideas for moving more and sitting less throughout the day

There is a very helpful website students from the University of New Mexico have created called “Don’t Sit, Get Fit.”  It gives numerous ideas on ways to reduce sitting and increase movement during the day whether at work, school, home or in your lifestyle.  Here is a sampling of those ideas:

·      Take a walk break every time you take a coffee break

·      Stand up and move whenever you have a drink of water at work

·      When watching TV, stand up and move every time a commercial comes on

·      Pace the sidelines at your kids’ athletic games

·      After reading 6 pages of a book get up and move a little

The next time you find yourself sitting longer than you should, stand up and move around – every little bit of activity adds up over the course of a day keeping you more lean, more fit and less likely to develop metabolic syndrome.