Obesity epidemic is a serious problem facing many nations around the world including developing countries. When a person starts putting on weight, the likelihood that many medical disorders such as diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, stroke and even cancer would come to this person becomes higher.
While there are many reasons that can cause a person to become overweight or even obese, there is a general consensus among health experts that sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet are mainly responsible for the epidemic. Many people love spending most of their time in front of TV or computer instead of performing physical activity. They also like to eat tasty food that is usually fried and full of unhealthy fats.
According to a new finding revealed on March 14, 2012 at a conference by the American Heart Association (AHA) in San Diego, California, spending long hours of TV watching without much physical activity can amplify a genetic disposition to obesity. The researchers, however, also pointed out that the effect could be reduced in half if these people could just walk briskly and briefly each day.
Researchers from Harvard school of Public Health and Harvard Medical School in Boston directly looked at the effect of the TV watching on BMI (body mass index) of individuals with a genetic predisposition to obesity.
They collected data on physical activity and TV watching from 7,740 female and 4,564 male participants 2 years prior to assessing their BMI. The data was taken from the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study.
The study indicated that on average, Americans watch TV for about 4 to 6 hours each day. The results also showed that the genetic effect on BMI was seen as more serious in people who spent 40 hours a week watching television than those who spent an hour or less. Fortunately, a one-hour daily walk could actually cut the genetic influence towards obesity, measured by differences in BMI by half.
The BMI is used to measure whether a person is overweight or obese. It is calculated by dividing the weight in kilograms by the square of height in meters. People with a BMI of 30 or more is considered obese.
Sedentary lifestyle is the one of the main reason of heart attack.Here are the symptoms of heart attack-
ReplyDeleteSevere chest pain (angina)
Short breath
Palpitations (skipped beats or a racing or pounding heart)
Leg swelling
Bluish skin color (cyanosis)
A prolonged, unexplained cough
Coughing up blood
fatigue or feeling unwell
You can Also try this to avoid sedentary lifestyle: While planning vacations, pick something that involves some walking and hiking. While taking in a new city, do it by walk, instead of driving around. If golfing, skip the cart. If staying at a resort, make use of their pool and the exercise facility. Try skiing and white water rafting. for more tips go for Orange County cardiology
ReplyDeleteAside from spending vast amounts of time sedentary at home, American's also have the added problem of being sedentary mush of the time they're at work. Most white collar professions and many blue collar professions involve sitting for multiple hours if not all day long. Dunstan, Howard, Nealy and Owen (2012) that showed that extensive sitting can lead to a multitude of health issues such as diabetes and heart disease. Considering recent nationwide attempts to combat sky rocketing costs companies might want to consider investing in ways to lower the impact of sitting all day long. Many companies have programs that help employees better they're health. Something to combat the effects of all day sitting would be right up that alley.
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