Sitting and Lipase

Have you heard of latest risk factor for death, heart disease and cancer?  It's got to be something exotic, right?  Maybe a new form of cholesterol or a hidden retrovirus?  No, I'm afraid it's called sitting.

Yes, sitting can be dangerous, very dangerous for your health and heart. That's right - researchers have found that few things in your lifestyle can influence your survival as how often your butt is on a chair or couch. One study, for example, found that every hour in front of the television was associated with an increased risk of death by heart disease, cancer and all causes of 18 percent, 9 percent and 11 percent, respectively. [1]  Other work has shown that for every two hours sitting per day, your risk of diabetes goes up by 7% because your body uses less blodd sugar. [6]

NOTE:  Remember that anything hard on the heart is also hard - or should I say limp? - on your erections as well.   

Do you know the foods and drinks that increase erection-boosting Nitric Oxide? Check out the Peak Erectile Strength Diet where I show you how to dramatically and naturally improve your erectile strength.

This was really sobering for someone like myself who is a computer jockey by day.  The study went on to state that for those who watch four or more hours of television per day have an 80 and 46 percent increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and all causes, repectively.  These are monster numbers.  The television and the computer, if you sit at them for extended periods of time, are the equivalent of a multi-pack smoking habit!

So is this just a television thing?  We all know that television sucks the life out of your brain, so perhaps it hits the rest of the bod just as hard?  Actually, it's not the television - it's the act of sitting that does it.  For example, researchers divided people into groups that sit 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent of the time and then followed them for 12 years.  The results were remarkable:  a dose-dependent rise in death from all causes and cardiovascular disease. [2]  In other words, the more sitting, the more likely the participants were to die from cardiovascular disease or all causes.

Also, an interesting twist is that a recent study found that sitting, independent of activity level, was strongly correlated with total all cause mortality.  Of course, the authors emphasized that physical activity is important, but they also pointed out that even physical activity cannot overcome a lifestyle of sitting around. [4]  Men who sat more than 6 hours per day were 18 percent more likely to die (and women 37 percent). [5]

When does low testosterone cause erectile dysfunction or harden your arteries? 300 ng/dl? 400? Find out what the studies say in Low Testosterone By The Numbers.

Why is sitting so deadly?  The answer is suprising:  it shuts off the activity of a key enzyme called lipase.  Lipase is the enzyme that breaks down fat and, after an extended time of sitting, lipase activity plummets to as low as one tenth of its normal rate.  One study showed that if lipase levels were increased in diabetically induced mice, they completely avoided elevated low cholesterol and triglycerides. [3] In other words, lipase activity is a powerful cardiovascular protection and may explain why rural, third world lifestyles are so heart protective.

Here is the key for all you TV lovers and those with a desk job:  get up and move every few hours.  No excuses - just get up and walk or do something where you're not sitting any more.  The studies show that you retain fat much more easily when lipase metabolism drops. Of course, this explains how many of us have discovered that our spare tire has inflated dramatically when we got a sit-all-day type of desk or computer job. 

CAUTION:  Some research even shows that you cannot make up for extended periods of sitting time through daily exercise unless that exercise is broken up into increments throughout the day regardless of fitness or exercise levels.  In other words, if you sit almost nonstop at work, commuting and/or in front of a television/computer, then an hour of exercise at the gym cannot compensate. [7] [8]

So what is the answer?  Move.  Keep moving.  Get up.  Do more things standing.  Our modern lifestyle is generally the antithesis of this.  Activity has become countercultural, but it is absolutely critical to your health.

NOTE:   Yes, this shows one more important reason why video games for the kids, no matter how convenient, are probably a bad idea. 

REFERENCES:

1) Circulation, Published Online Jan 11 2010, "Television Viewing Time and Mortality. The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab)"

2) Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, May 2009, 41(5):998-1005, "Sitting Time and Mortality from All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer"

3) Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, May 2009, 41(5):998-1005, "Overexpression of Human Lipoprotein Lipase Protects Diabetic Transgenic Mice From Diabetic Hypertriglyceridemia and Hypercholesterolemia"

4) American Journal of Epidemiology, Advance Access published online on July 22, 2010, "Leisure Time Spent Sitting in Relation to Total Mortality in a Prospective Cohort of US Adults"

5) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/195697.php

6) Women's Health, Nov 2009, p. 133.

7) http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/725341_3, "Too Much Sitting: The Population Health Science of Sedentary Behavior: Objective Assessment of Sedentary Time: New Findings"

8) Exercise & Sport Sciences Reviews, Jul 2010, 38(3):105-113, "Too Much Sitting: The Population Health Science of Sedentary Behavior"