Taking short walking breaks cuts harmful effects of continuous sitting

A new study has suggested that slow and five minute walks can ward off the harm caused to leg arteries during three hours of continue sitting.

The study conducted at Indiana University examined the experimental evidence of effects of sitting for long hours.

Saurabh Thosar, a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon Health and Science University, said that there was a plenty of epidemiological evidence linking sitting time to various chronic diseases and linking breaking sitting time to beneficial cardiovascular effects, but there was very little experimental evidence.

Thosar added that they had shown that "prolonged sitting" impaired endothelial function, which was an early marker of cardiovascular disease, and that breaking sitting time prevents the decline in that function.

The study involved 11 non-obese, healthy men between the ages of 20-35 who participated in two randomized trials and in one trial they sat for three hours without moving their legs where researchers used a blood pressure cuff and ultrasound technology to measure the functionality of the femoral artery at baseline and again at the one-, two- and three-hour mark.