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Reinhard Fasching / FeaturePics Stock
Sitting has also been linked to chronic diseases, such as type II diabetes and now kidney disease.
Couch potatoes may have an increased risk of chronic kidney disease, even if they take time out from sitting to exercise vigorously, a new study suggests.
British researchers found that people who spent the least amount of time sitting were also the least likely to have chronic kidney disease. And that was especially true for women who spent less than three hours a day seated, according to the study published in the American Journal of Kidney Disease.
It’s not clear how sedentary behavior could lead to kidney disease, said study co-author Thomas Yates, a researcher at the University of Leicester and the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
But, sitting has also been linked to other chronic diseases, such as type II diabetes, Yates said.
"Sitting jobs need to be broken up with periods of standing,” Yates said. “As these findings start trickling down to the public consciousness, it is hoped it will affect occupational health considerations.”
Yates and his colleagues surveyed 5,650 Britons, asking about lifestyle factors such as smoking, exercise and sitting time. They also examined the study volunteers for signs of kidney disease. The researchers found a link between hours spent sitting and kidney disease, even after they took into account factors such as smoking, age, gender, ethnicity, body-mass index, blood pressure, medications and hours spent exercising.
The researchers divided the volunteers into three groups: people who sat 8 to 24 hours a day were categorized as "high," those who sat 3.2 to 7.8 hours a day were considered "moderate," and those who sat 0 to 3 hours a day were categorized as "low."
Women with low amounts of sitting time had a 30 percent reduction in risk of kidney disease compared to those in the high category. Men who spent little time sitting got a 20 percent reduction in risk compared to those who sat the most.
Exercise seemed to reduce, but not eliminate, the heightened risk in men who were couch potatoes. Exercise did not appear to ameliorate the effects of sitting in women, though.
Does that mean we should all give up our office jobs and find something that requires more activity?
No, said kidney expert Dr. Jeffrey S. Berns, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
The researchers found an association between long hours sitting and a greater likelihood of having kidney disease, Berns explained. That doesn’t prove that sitting actually caused the kidneys to become diseased.
“Someone who sits around and doesn’t have risk factors for kidney disease shouldn’t worry,” Berns said. “While it’s certainly plausible to think that sitting may contribute to diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure, it’s much harder to come up with a way that inactivity could be a direct cause of kidney disease. The flip side of this is that people with chronic kidney disease are known to be less active. And my suspicion is that these results are confounded by that.”
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Having a single metric and trying to prove a point, is just lunacy. The data should include many more factors and should be observational not Q&A. This study is complete nonsense.
Everybody that eats, dies. So I am going to stop eating and live forever!
Let me know how that works out for you.................
I can see the future where chairs are outlawed. After all, the government will insist it's for our own good.
Obama has been working on that since Clint's move.
ok, that was the best funny line of the day....maybe the week !
I have a sitting job. I work in a computer helpdesk call center where, except for scheduled breaks, we are required to remain at our desks on the phone or available to speak on the phone. I currently have 4 10-hour shifts per day. At one time we could leave our stations for short periods of time to talk to support technicians about challenging issues on the call, but this was replaced by an online system so no more walking around while on duty at all. I try to stand up and stretch periodically, but most of the time the pace of the work is relentless and I am working with at least a half dozen software applications at any given time. Since my schedule went to 10-hour days I am horrified by the intense fatigue I feel by the end of the day. I have edema as well so my feet and ankles swell, adding to the fatigue. (I am not on any medications--no high blood pressure, for instance--and I don't even own a box of salt in my kitchen and cook everything from scratch (and bring my lunch to work). I walk to and from work (a little less than a mile) and walk on my days off, but between the short evenings once I am home from work and the intense exhaustion (both physical and mental fatigue) I have not been able to manage additional walking after work. I know I would feel less tired with a less TOTALLY sedentary job and have been looking around but so far nothing. My supervisor (who does get to walk around during the day) agrees with me how unhealthy this is but company goals take priority. When I do get a scheduled break and have not had a chance to get up and stretch (tethered to my headset of course) I am so stiff and sore I can barely move. I try to walk a few blocks during my breaks, which helps--but not enough. I would like to see the health insurance company pressure the company to build in time to allow employees a brief mental and physical break each hour. If you research call center work and health issues, you will find there are numerous studies pointing to significant health implications.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the rate of blood flow through the kidneys. I also wonder if sitting against the back of a chair has a compression effect, since the kidneys are situated in that area. What kind of chronic disease did they find? If it's a consistent structural problem, they should be able to figure out what's causing it. If it's something inconsistent, or exacerbation of a problem that could be attributed to something else (like genetics), then it's much less clear.
Sounds like women would be healthier spending more time on their backs....
Most people who die have something wrong with them...duuuhhh
It is well known that people who drive trucks and heavy equipment, have higher incidence of kidney disorders. And they sit most of the time.
It was assumed this was due to getting jarred around by road bumps and nature of the work.
Maybe not?
After experiencing chronic hip pain from sitting in front of a computer 8 hours a day, I converted everything so I now stand in front of my computer. The hip pain completely disappeared & I now burn more calories standing up. This is one of many articles that I have read recently about how detrimental it is for humans to sit all day long...
this is something im considering and have been looking into it, i work 2 jobs, both at a pc, and im at a desk sitting for somthing like 12 hrs a day, anythign special you did to create a stand up space or just elevated everything?
B.S
The next thing they are going to say is that Sleeping is bad for you. Or maybe we shouldn't drink water or eat. A person could spend every waking hour doing everything these health doctors say and in the end get Run over by a Truck. Enjoy life. So Eat drink and be Merry because you could get run over by a truck tomorrow.
I think we should try sleeping while standing.
I've only been able to accomplish that only a few times. Even then I had to be very very tired.
The last two paragraphs of this article mark it as a sensationalist hyperbole piece with little or no basis in science (or reality). Fear sells, so this is to be expected; but I hazard to say that the world would be better-off without the kind of fear-mongering that comprises most news articles--including this one.
Either (something like) 80% of the USA is doomed to kidney failure, or there are other factors involved that this article neglects to mention. Examples: how often does the average desk worker drink 8 fluid ounces of water? How often do such people take antacids (like Tums) which can saturate the bloodstream with calcium? How many such people take pain-killers on a regular basis (Tylenol, Aspirin, Aleve, IBUProfen, etc.)? What about stress and high blood pressure? Cholesterol? Eating out?
I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that if the research covers no more than this article implies, it's completely worthless and only "muddies" the issue--while giving the public yet another thing to stress over; who needs that?!
Is it just me or is the picture they used a little creepy? I mean, you couldn't take a picture of someone sitting at a desk. It has to be from a point of view under the desk. It reminds of the Breakfast Club scene when Judd Nelson is under the table looking between Molly Ringwald's legs.
@roadrunner - haha, that was my first thought too!
...and for people confined to wheelchairs...??
Another worthless study leading to no useful social outcomes.
It is impossible to do everything we're 'supposed to' do in today's day and age in order to maintain good health. Our bodies were not made for this kind of lifestyle. We are hunter-gatherers and made to be nothing else. On the flip side, we are living longer now as a whole than we ever did so what, exactly, do these health officials want?
Old age is not always peachy, and not always something you should look forward to. Health issues, your body breaking down, financial issues (doctors, medication, lack of income or lower income, etc). All articles like this do is scare people...
When I was first diagnosed with chronic kidney disease 34 years ago, I was a waitress and bartender. I spent 10 hours a day on average on my feet.
I disagree with this study.
CharJTF 34yrs is a long time just wondering how your doing, Are you on dialysis? I was just diagnosed w/ckd from ibuprofen,maybe prednisone too? "for rheumatoid arthritis"
The article refers to people who sit a lot at their jobs as "couch potatoes". How many of us have a couch behind our desk?
These are palm readers who made this research. Better than a first grader thou.
The evidence seems pretty clear on this one - 100% of people who have ever had occasion to sit down have died or will die in the future. Therefore sitting is deadly. Stand up all the time, even while sleeping.
In school they told you to sit your a$$ down or else..... now they tell you to stand up. fukcmeruning
Sitting down, standing up, lying down or however how you want to rest your butt, we are all gonna die when our time comes. This is another crappy study.
What happens to the people who are disable and cannot stand because they are tied down to their wheel chairs? How many of them are suffering from Kidney Chronic disease? Let me hear the latest census about this.
Sedentary behavior could not only has been linked to chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes,high blood pressure...but also lead to kidney disease.There are an association between long hours sitting and greater likelihood of having kidney disease because inactivity can cause the blood flow circulates slowly and the urine to be pool which leading to retrograde infection and triggering to another kidney damages.
Lack of physical activity is proven to be unhealthy but drawing direct correlation between sitting and disease - even when someone exercises regularly - seems excessive. Perhaps some factors were not considered in the study and a review is in order.
There have been other studies on the effects of extended sitting, recommending trying to stand and stretch for 2 minutes every 20 minutes. The body was not evolved to stay in one position for hours on end. Even bedridden people have to be turned and repositioned periodically to prevent pressure sores because of impeded blood flow and, well, pressure. Studies like this help provide possible direction for more specific inquiries to avoid confounding factors.
Clinical studies, in the public domain, consistently point to a direct link between sedentary behavior and potential health issues. To help address this situation and provide some options for those of us who are required to sit for long periods daily take a look at the workstation from StandinGoodHealth. It functions with your existing desktop and converts in seconds from standing to sitting. You might decide to change the way you work and experience for yourself how introducing more movement into your day effects your personal well being.
Clinical studies, in the public domain, consistently point to a direct link between sedentary behavior and potential health issues. To help address this situation and provide some options for those of us who are required to sit for long periods daily take a look at the workstation from StandinGoodHealth. It functions with your existing desktop and converts in seconds from standing to sitting. You might decide to change the way you work and experience for yourself how introducing more movement into your day effects your personal well being.
Where I work, the employer has promised for 2 years to buy new office chairs, since most of the ones we have are worn out and awful. Either the seats and backs are unstable or they jam in unnatural positions or the cushioning has worn. I don't see us getting stations like that anytime soon.
People, please be aware of the chair manufacturers' lackeys casting doubt on this study. Don't you see. We might stop buying chairs and cause this industry to fail. So even though the study was forthright and rigorous, I'm sure the chair manufaturers have their stooges here to discredit it.
Or not.
Further proof that watching TV excessively is bad for ones health. How about the fact that people who watch excessive amounts of TV also probably consume large amounts of junk food containing empty calories and carbs. Carbs epically in simple form are sugar and excessive consumption of sugars will most likely lead to type II diabetes and eventually kidney failure. Plus a lack of exercise means that you are burning less calories.