How dangerous is sitting?

It is important that the endothelium is healthy, which is the inner lining of the blood vessel wall, and it is also important to have good circulation through those blood vessels.

If these factors are compromised the risk for atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries) will also increase, and you don't want that.

The reviewed research is interesting because it investigated a common reason for decline in circulation and what you can do to prevent it(Thosar SS et al. 2014).

The researchers measured flow mediated dilation (FMD) for the superficial femoral artery. When blood flows through a blood vessel, the vessel will dilate and FMD measures this.

FMD was measured after the participants had been sitting for 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours without getting up. The participants then walked on a treadmill for 5 minutes after they had been sitting for 30 minutes, 1.5 hour and 2.5 hours and the same FMD measurements were performed.

The FMD significantly declined after sitting for 1, 2 and 3 hours, but walking for 5 minutes every hour prevented the decline in FMD.

Just a simple thing like this can make a difference, and depending on the activity, you may not even have to be active for 5 minutes.

Thosar SS, Bielko SL, Mather KJ, Johnston JD, Wallace JP. Effect of Prolonged Sitting and Breaks in Sitting Time on Endothelial Function. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2014 Aug 18. [Epub ahead of print]

Published with permission by Didrik Sopler, Ph.D., L.Ac : www.TissueRecovery.com Dr. Marsh has worked with and referrers patients to Dr. Sopler for co-management for years . . . He is quite simply San Diego's top functional medicine consultant.