Why Too Much Sitting Could Be Bad For You

Study finds that elderly women who sit more than 10 hours a day age eight years more on their biological age compare to their actual chronological age. Researchers from University of California San Diego School of Medicine had claimed that passive elders have an older cells compared to active elders. Furthermore, elderly women with less than 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity have shorter telomeres in contrast to active elders. Telomeres are found at the end of DNA strands which shortens as the human ages. They protect the chromosomes as well from weakening.

According to US San Diego News Center, telomeres naturally shorten as the cell ages. To support this, Aladdin Shadyab, PhD (the lead author in the study) said that "Our study found cells age faster with a sedentary lifestyle. Chronological age doesn't always match biological age." However, lifestyle and health can either accelerate or decelerate its process. The process may accelerate if a person's lifestyle includes unhealthy activities such as sluggishness, smoking and obesity. On the other hand, process may decelerate when a person carries out healthy living. In addition, What Doctors Know had also added that shortened telomeres are also linked to serious illness such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and major cancers.

In the study, women who were a member of Women's Health Initiative (WHI) who conducts studies among postmenopausal women had partaken in the research. Almost one thousand five hundred participants had join aging from 64 - 95. As a result, the researchers had found out those elder women who sit longer do not have shorter telomeres as long as they execute a 30 minutes exercise daily. Shadyab had also added that "Discussions about the benefits of exercise should start when we are young, and physical activity should continue to be part of our daily lives as we get older, even at 80 years old."