Health IQ: Sitting too much? How you can offset the harmful effects

A brisk walk a day may keep the doctor away

If you find you spend a lot of your day sitting, whether at work or just lounging on the couch, researchers say that this sedentary lifestyle can lead to major health problems down the road.

However, a study published Oct. 24 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that a 22-minute brisk walk every day may be enough to offset the unhealthy lifestyle of sitting for long periods of time.

“More than 22 daily minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity was associated with a lower risk of death,” the researchers stated.

In Canada, adults spend an average of 9.8 hours in sedentary behaviour (like sitting), according to a 2022 Statistics Canada report. This lifestyle increases a person’s risk for hypertension, obesity, depression, chronic conditions and premature mortality.

But even small amounts of moderate to vigorous physical activity may be an effective strategy to offset the mortality risk from high sedentary time, the researchers stated.

“Basically, any movement you do with your body — it could be a brisk walk, it could be working in a garden, it could be playing with your kids — anything that gets your body moving, you’re going to benefit from,” said Jon McGavock a professor of pediatrics and child health at the University of Manitoba and a Heart & Stroke Foundation researcher.

Read more about the study and what type of physical activities health experts recommend.

Daylight saving time may worsen Alzheimer’s symptoms

The end of daylight saving time is near, meaning on Nov. 5 many Canadians will have to set their clocks back one hour.

Although it’s a major inconvenience for some, the effects of daylight saving time on people living with Alzheimer’s can be particularly challenging to manage.

That’s because Alzheimer’s disease already has a significant impact on circadian rhythms and sleep patterns, explained Andrée-Ann Bari, an assistant research professor in the department of medicine at the Université de Montréal.

She said: Alzheimer’s patients “tend to sleep a bit differently during the day. They tend to have really fragmented sleep, lighter sleep, and have problems with their with satisfaction of sleep, depending on the advancement of the disease.”

“So any kind of further challenge to that is going to be problematic. It’s highly possible that people with Alzheimer’s disease are going to struggle more than most of us when there’s daylight savings time, to adjust to this change.”

Read more about how people with Alzheimer’s disease struggle with the time shift and tips to cope with the change in routine.

— THE TOPIC —

Does intermittent fasting work?

— WHAT EXPERTS ARE SAYING —

Intermittent fasting: Is it a fashionable weight loss trend, or a genuinely effective and health-conscious dietary approach?

The core principle of intermittent fasting involves confining your daily eating to a specific time frame, typically around eight hours, and then fasting for the remaining portion of the day.

“So basically, all it’s doing is lowering our food intake and that leads to weight loss,” said Krista Varady, a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois. She has published several studies on intermittent fasting.

If people with obesity strictly adhere to intermittent fasting, it can generally result in losing up to 50 pounds, she told Global News in an interview, with most of that weight loss coming from fat mass and belly fat. For others, they may not lose any weight at all.

There is also growing research that suggests intermittent fasting not only helps people shed pounds but can also lower blood pressure and bad cholesterol.

However, experts say more research with bigger randomized trials over a long time period is needed to better understand the effectiveness of this diet plan.

“Intermittent fasting may be good for one, but not so good for another,” said David Jenkins, a professor in the department of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto. “It really depends on who you are and whether it suits your particular psychological approach to food.”

Also, what and how much you eat in that eight-hour window are important considerations, he said.