Good News For Couch Potatoes
New studies show that the ill effects of a lazy lifestyle can be reversed with just a little bit of exercise.
As The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay explained on The Early Show Monday, researchers at Duke University Medical Center looked at data from a recent study that showed an inactive, sedentary lifestyle leads to an increase in risk factors for heart disease. That study ran for six months and had more than 300 participants in three exercise groups and one control group: the couch potatoes who got no exercise.
The study measured the effect of inactivity on heart disease and diabetes risk factors, including waist size, physical fitness, visceral fat, body mass index, cholesterol levels, insulin sensitivity and indicators of metabolic syndrome, a precursor of diabetes.
The bad news for the couch potato group was that many of their indicators of heart health declined during the six months without exercise.
The researchers then decided to see if these negative effects could be reversed if the inactive control group from the study went on to spend the next six months in an exercise program. They found that even a small amount of physical activity can make a big difference in reducing the health risks. In fact, many of the detrimental effects of physical inactivity were reversed and, in some cases, improved. For all the time spent not moving around and sinking into an unhealthy physical state, an equal amount of time spent being more active boosted health back to normal.
How much exercise is needed to reverse the ill effects of a couch potato lifestyle?
Three levels of exercise were measured, 12 miles of walking per week, 12 miles of jogging per week, or twenty miles of jogging per week. The results showed that it wasn't the group with the most intense exercise that got the most results. The study found that just twelve miles of walking per week, less than two miles per day, reversed the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle. The participants who had the greatest decline in physical health benefited the most from exercise training.
The researchers say the results show that while the cost of a sedentary lifestyle can be high, switching to a more active lifestyle can be beneficial at any time.
Bad lifestyle habits can be hard to break for a lot of people, Senay observes.
Since it wasn't the participants with the highest intensity of exercise who had the combined beneficial effects, it should be reassuring for people to know they don't have to do a high-intensity workout to get the benefits, Senay suggests. This study should provide some incentive for people to change their habits and get over the psychological barriers to getting more exercise.