Sitting Yourself to Death?

There's an easy solution--get walking

By Carol Krucoff , Carol Krucoff is coauthor, with her husband, Mitch Krucoff, MD, of Healing Moves: How to Cure, Relieve, and Prevent Common Ailments with Exercise (Three Rivers Press/Random House 2001).

Professor Frank Booth, PhD, was out for his daily run one spring morning in 2000, pondering one of the toughest problems facing public health officials these days: how to get the nearly 70 percent of Americans who don't regularly exercise to start moving.

"Everyone knows exercise is good for them, but many don't realize it's a matter of life and death," says Booth, who teaches biomedical science at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "My father was in advertising, so I know how important a short, catchy name is to grab people's attention and change the way they think and behave. Running always helps my creativity, and the name Sedentary Death Syndrome just popped into my head."

Sedentary Death Syndrome (SeDS) may be a little too scientific to be catchy. But it needs to catch on. Because what it means, says Booth, is that "inactivity kills."

Dead Man Sitting

In fact, sitting kills more than 300,000 Americans annually. If it were a real disease, that would make SeDS the third leading cause of death in the US, right after heart disease and cancer. But SeDS is more than one disease. Being sedentary is linked to a wide range of debilitating ailments--from diabetes and depression to osteoporosis, certain cancers, and even sexual dysfunction. It affects nearly three out of four adults and a growing number of children and is projected to cost the US $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. Though it's not yet a household word, the SeDS concept has caught on with a growing number of exercise scientists. Booth used his own money to start Researchers Against Inactivity-Related Disorders, or RID, an organization advocating governmental support for research into the disorders associated with sedentary living. A founding group of 40 RID members unveiled the concept of SeDS on Capitol Hill in 2001. Today, the group has more than 400 members in 19 countries. (Just sitting around is apparently a worldwide phenomenon. In 2002, the World Health Organization announced that about 2 million deaths annually worldwide are attributed to sedentary lifestyles and chose physical activity as the theme for World Health Day.)

A Simple Cure

Of course, you know what it is: moving. All it takes is 30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week to significantly reduce the risk of SeDS' 35 conditions listed by RID. These range from potential killers--such as heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and breast, colon, and pancreatic cancers--to disabling conditions such as arthritis pain, menopausal symptoms, physical frailty, osteoporosis, and digestive problems. Think of inactivity as the exercise equivalent of smoking. Only worse. One 2002 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that being sedentary and out of shape may be more hazardous than other well-known risk factors, such as smoking, hypertension, and heart disease.

"Our study showed that a person's exercise capacity, measured by their ability to perform on a treadmill, was a more powerful predictor of mortality than all other risk factors," says lead author Jonathan Myers, PhD, clinical assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University. "And it also showed that, regardless of any other risk factors you have, if you're physically fit, you can cut your risk of premature death in half." And you don't have to even break a sweat to gain a few more years of life. "Just going from being sedentary to being moderately active can cut your risk of coronary artery disease by 30 to 50 percent," says Myers. "The studies are very consistent that getting half an hour of exercise a day can dramatically reduce your risk of disease and boost health." While the new Institute of Medicine recommendation to get 60 minutes a day of exercise could confer even more benefit, Myers says that, in a time-crunched world, "just 30 minutes of exercise a day is enough to substantially improve health. Most people would benefit as much from that amount of exercise as from some of the medicines they take."

Bottoms Up!

"Many people still consider exercise an all-or-nothing phenomenon, where they either go all out at the gym or sit on the couch," says California RID spokesperson Suzette K. Smith, DrPH, a preventive care specialist and registered dietitian. "What we do know is that adding more movement into your days by taking short walks, climbing the stairs, even playing actively with your kids can add up to real health benefits."

She's stopped using the word "exercise" because "it turns many people off. I tell them to find some form of physical activity they like or are able to do, and schedule about 30 minutes of it into their day." If time is an issue, she recommends that you "break it up, so you move for 10 minutes three times a day or 15 minutes twice a day." Start slowly, and progress gradually until you reach your goal (it is your goal, you know) of being active for at least 30 minutes a day, most days of the week.

It's very important that you stick with it for 60 to 90 days. That's how long it may take to make your new activity a habit, notes Smith. And though it may be hard to believe now, when heaving yourself off the couch is a Herculean task, one day, she promises, you'll actually look forward to it. "After a while, you may find yourself finding excuses to include physical activity in your day instead of making excuses not to," she adds.

From Prevention.com