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One of the biggest health risks of living in a digital era is that many of us are sitting for eight or more hours a day, oftentimes behind a computer screen. Whether you spend your screen time sitting at work, at home, or while commuting—there's good news. This week, an international team of researchers reported that the health risks of sedentarism can be dramatically reduced, or eliminated, with an hour or more of physical activity a day.
Sedentarism is described as, 'prolonged periods of sitting or overall inactivity which exacerbates health risks associated with a lack of dedicated exercise.' For a lot of people, sedentarism has become a fact of modern life. Their typical day includes driving or taking public transportation to work, sitting at a desk all day, commuting back home on the subway or carpool, and then sitting on the couch watching TV or surfing the internet until bedtime.
Studies on high-income countries, with advanced information-driven economies, have found that many adults spend the majority of their waking hours sitting. The amount of time people living in Western civilization spend sitting in the 21st century would have seemed unfathomable to our ancestors prior to the industrial revolution.
Before the mid-19th century, surviving in agrarian or hunter-gatherer societies required well over 60 minutes of daily physical activity or hard labor. Of course, there's no evolutionary way that our bodies and minds could adapt to such a dramatic uptick in sedentarism in such a short period of time.
In 1953, one of the earliest studies on the impact of sedentarism occurred when researchers coincidentally observed that London bus drivers were at greater risk of heart disease compared to bus conductors, who inherently were more physically active. Since then, scientists have unearthed increasing evidence that physical inactivity is a major risk factor for several diseases and increases the risk of early death.
Do you Exercise Moderately for a Cumulative 150 Minutes Per Week?
Recent estimates suggest that more than 5 million people die globally each year as a result of failing to meet the recommended daily activity level which is 150 minutes (30 minutes, 5 days a week) of moderate intensity exercise per week. ‘Moderate intensity’ exercise is defined as walking briskly at approximately 3.5 miles per hour or cycling at 10 miles per hour.
If you are like millions of people around the globe, who are sitting for over 8 hours a day, making a concerted effort to do between 60 to 75 minutes of daily moderate exercise could be a matter of life and death. I know. This sounds like a lot of exercise. But, the good news is, you can break your total exercise into smaller doses that fit into your daily routine by doing things such as walking or biking to work, taking the stairs as opposed to the escalator or elevator, etc.
If your schedule is hectic and you're squeezed for time, you don't need to block off a full hour every day to work out. You can cobble together a total of 60 minutes throughout the day. For example, I like to kill two birds with one stone by writing blog posts while I'm doing aerobic exercise first thing in the morning. Not only does cardio get my creative juices going, it makes the time spent doing a potentially monotonous physical activity go quickly. As a matter of fact, I'm on the stationary bike at the gym right now typing this sentence.
Accumulating 60 Minutes of Exercise Throughout the Day Will Help You Stay Alive
Recently, an international team of researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 16 studies that included data from more than one million men and women. Their goal was to answer the question: "If an individual is active enough, can this reduce, or even eliminate, the increased risk of early death associated with sitting down?" The answer is: Yes!
The July 2016 study, "Does Physical Activity Attenuate, or Even Eliminate, the Detrimental Association of Sitting Time with Mortality? A Harmonised Meta-Analysis of Data from More Than 1 Million Men and Women," appears in The Lancet.
For this meta-analysis the researchers divided individuals into four quartiles depending on their quantity of weekly physical activity. The lowest quartile exercised less than 5 minutes per day. The highest quartile exercised for 60 minutes or more per day.
The researchers found that 60 to 75 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per day is sufficient to eliminate the increased risk of early death associated with sitting for over eight hours per day. Unfortunately, approximately three out of four people in the study failed to reach this accumulation of time spent being physically active.
The greatest risk of early death was for individuals who were physically inactive—regardless of the amount of time they spent sitting. It was the fact that they didn't really move their bodies at any point during the day that was most strongly correlated with early death.
On average, the most inactive members of the study were 43.5% more likely to die early when compared with individuals who were the most active. A similar mortality risk is associated with smoking and obesity. In a statement, Professor Ulf Ekelund from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, said,
"There has been a lot of concern about the health risks associated with today's more sedentary lifestyles. Our message is a positive one: it is possible to reduce—or even eliminate—these risks if we are active enough, even without having to take up sports or go to the gym.
For many people who commute to work and have office-based jobs, there is no way to escape sitting for prolonged periods of time. For these people in particular, we cannot stress enough the importance of getting exercise, whether it's getting out for a walk at lunchtime, going for a run in the morning or cycling to work.
An hour of physical activity per day is the ideal, but if this is unmanageable, then at least doing some exercise each day can help reduce the risk."
The researchers acknowledge that there were some limitations to making a global interpretation of the data they analyzed. For example, most of the data came from participants aged 45 years and older who resided in western Europe, the United States, and Australia.
That said, I believe the strengths of this meta-analysis outweigh the limitations. Especially when you consider that in decades to come, advances in technology will inevitably lead to increased epidemiological risks associated with sedentarism in every nation for people of all ages
Conclusion: Minimizing the ‘Future Shock’ of Living in a Facebook Era
The double whammy of living in a sedentary digital age is that many of us are sitting alone for more than 8 hours a day in front of a computer screen—while doing most of our socializing via Facebook. A decade ago, in "A Note from the Author" for The Athlete’s Way: Sweat and the Biology of Bliss (St. Martin's Press), I wrote,
“One reason the psycho-pharmacological business is booming is that our bodies are not designed to be sedentary or isolated behind computer screens. Doctors prescribe pills to make people feel better—I prescribe sweat, community, energy balance, and a sense of purpose. Humans need to move. Organic, self-produced bliss, kinship, and stress reduction are available to all of us, if we are willing to break a sweat, bond with other humans, and chase our happiness down.”
The principles of the statement above have become increasingly important as 21st century technological advances charge ahead at breakneck speed. Luckily, there are common sense lifestyle choices you can make that will immunize you from what Alvin Toffler described in Future Shock as "too much change in too short of a time," which causes the human body and mind to short-circuit and self-destruct.
In addition to the health benefits of 60 to 75 minutes of moderate exercise to combat the effects of sitting in front of a computer screen for 8 hours a day—there are other things you can do to optimize your well-being and longevity in a digital age.
As an example, new research shows that increasing your exposure to nature, which fosters a sense of awe and the realization that you are part of something much bigger than yourself, is great for the psyche. Also, consciously increasing your exposure to natural light during the day and reducing your exposure to artificial light (especially after dark) will keep your biological circadian rhythms in sync.
Lastly, empirical and anecdotal evidence reminds us that maintaining strong face-to-face social connections and a sense of belonging to a living and breathing community is of paramount importance for all of our long-term psychological and physical well-being. In fact, if I had to choose between physical exercise or close-knit human bonds being "The No. 1 Way to Stay Alive and Well in a Digital Age," I'd have to call it a tie.
