A walk around the office can save you from vascular dysfunction

A new study has revealed that vascular health can be restored, if employees, who sit at their desks for eight hours and complain for impaired vascular function, walk for just 10 minutes around the office.

The study conducted by University of Missouri School of Medicine compared the vascular function of 11 healthy young men before and after a period of prolonged sitting and found that blood flow in the popliteal i.e. an artery in the lower leg was greatly reduced after sitting at a desk for six hours.

Later, scientists asked researchers to take a short walk, and noticed that 10 minutes of self-paced walking could restore the impaired vascular function and improve blood flow.

Jaume Padilla, lead author of the study, said that their study observed that when employees sit for six straight hours, or the majority of an eight-hour work day, blood flow to the legs was greatly reduced.

Padilla added that when one has decreased blood flow, the friction of the flowing blood on the artery wall, called shear stress, is also reduced, which appear to be detrimental and reduce the ability of the artery to dilate, a sign of vascular health.

The researchers concluded that it's important for people to understand the effects of sitting on their vascular health. By breaking up desk time with a short walk, workers can offset the harm caused to vascular blood vessels.

The research is published in Experimental Physiology journal.