It's better to stand up to prevent yourself from Type 2 Diabetes
Researchers have begun to look more closely at the risks of being sedentary these days, even when it is well known that exercise can help prevent and manage diabetes.
A number of risk factors for diabetes and metabolic syndrome, including larger waist circumference, high cholesterol, and high triglyceride levels have been found to be associated with being sedentary, such as sitting at a desk all day or spending too many hours in front of the TV or computer screen etc.
Sitting Increases Your Chances of Type 2 Diabetes
Of course, an office stretch is always nice, but you'll need to do move more than this at work to lower your risk for diabetes. Now, a new study has found that people who were more sedentary were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome than those who were less sedentary.
There is little muscle use and thus, little energy burn, and the metabolic pathways regulating how we store blood sugars are less active and effective when we sit for a long time. Over time this can contribute to an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes as we tend to have more sugars in our blood and store less.
Your body needs to work harder to absorb sugar and make insulin when sitting and as such extended periods of sitting puts you at a higher risk for type 2 diabetes. Being an important diabetes risk factor that can put too much stress on the cells that make insulin.
There is a human enzyme called lipoprotein lipase that gets fat out of the blood and into the muscles for use during activity. According to some studies, inactivity dramatically suppresses the enzyme, which leaves fat in the blood, potentially increasing the risk of heart disease, or that the fat will be stored in the body.
Exercise and Diabetes
Up until recently, researches have focused on the benefits of exercise. Exercise can help maintain blood glucose levels, help insulin absorb glucose into your body’s cells, and help insulin or diabetes medications work more effectively aside from helping you lose and maintain weight. However exercising for 30 or 45 minutes a day may not be enough to counter all of the negative effects of sitting.
Studies have found that one extra hour of sedentary time a day was associated with a 22 percent increased risk for type 2 diabetes and a 39 percent increased risk for developing metabolic syndrome. Those with type 2 diabetes have up to 26 more minutes a day of sedentary time compared to others. As such, sitting behavior may play a significant role in the development and prevention of type 2 diabetes.
Knowing that sedentary time can be a major catalyst for pre-diabetes and diabetes Type 2 makes this particular avenue of entry for the disease very controllable and a great prevention tool in fighting the off the disease before it can begin. If you work from a computer and are stuck behind a desk you may want to press your boss to consider an adjustable standing desk and purchase one for your home office.
How Sit Stand Desks are Beneficial
Sit-stand desks alone decrease workplace sitting with about half an hour to two hours per day. They help reduce sitting at work in the same range when combined with information and counseling. Sit-stand desks also reduce total sitting time and the duration of sitting episodes that last 30 minutes or longer.
On the other hand, you burn more calories, reduce your risk of obesity, improve your productivity and also develop better mental health with sit stand desks.