Walking Two Minutes an Hour Lengthens Life

Want to live longer? Get up from that desk, at least once an hour. Walking two minutes every hour means a longer life, according to a new study by a University of Utah team in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

“Sitting for a long time strongly increases the risk of death,” said Srinivasan Beddhu, the lead author of the study. “Our findings suggest that replacing sedentary duration with an increase in light activity might confer a survival benefit.”

The researchers analyzed information on more than 3,000 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey more than a decade ago. The subjects wore accelerometers that objectively measured their activity levels, which included sitting, walking and more vigorous movement. Researchers followed the participants for three more years after the initial data was collected in 2003-2004, they said.

A 33 percent lower risk of dying was discovered for those that got up every hour to walk around, the school said. Among the patients with chronic kidney disease in the study group, the risk of death was lower by 41 percent among those who walked for two minutes each hour.

Some 137 of the group died over the course of the study.

“Exercise is great, but the reality is that the practical amount of vigorous exercise that can be achieved is limited,” said Tom Greene, the director of the Study Design and Biostatistics Center at the school, and one of the authors. “Our study suggests that even small changes can have a big impact.”

Sitting has been linked to a wide swath of diseases and increased mortality, according to a series of studies. Heart disease, cancers, obesity and even mental illness have been linked to sedentary living patterns.

Exercise might not even counteract the bad effects of sitting too long. A study published by the Annals of Internal Medicine in January found that sitting cause more disease, from cancer to cardiovascular disease, regardless of time spent exercising.