Study asks: How much sedentary time is too much?

Spending more than 10.6 hours a day sitting, lying down or reclining can raise your risk of dying from heart-related causes – even if you exercise regularly, researchers warn.

A team from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at data from nearly 90,000 people in the UK Biobank research database. The participants wore activity trackers over seven days. When the researchers followed up eight years later, they found that people who were sedentary more than 10.6 hours a day had a higher risk of:

• Atrial fibrillation
• Heart failure
• First heart attack
• Death from cardiovascular causes 

Altogether, these incidents affected almost 8,000 of the participants. Even those who also got the recommended 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week were affected.

The study’s researchers want to raise awareness of the importance of cutting down on sedentary time. “Avoiding more than 10.6 hours per day may be a realistic minimal target for better heart health,” said co-senior study author Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist at Mass General.

The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.