The negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle on health continue to be brought to the agenda by experts.
New research into women's health has revealed that women who sit for more than six hours a day are twice as likely to develop uterine fibroids.
According to a recent study from China, sitting for six hours or more a day was linked to twice the risk of uterine fibroids compared to women who sat for less than two hours a day. So the more time spent inactive, the greater the risk of uterine fibroids.
Fibroids are harmless muscle and tissue growths that form in or on the wall of the uterus. They are quite common, with 80% of women between the ages of 30 and 50 having fibroids. Small fibroids are usually painless, but larger growths can cause pain, swelling, excessive bleeding, constipation and discharge.
6,600 PARTICIPANTS WERE EVALUATED
For their study, researchers from Kunming University in China recruited more than 6,600 women ages 30 to 55 who had not yet entered menopause. They then assessed other information, such as menstrual cycle, reproductive history, number of children and diet.
Participants in the study, published in BMJ Open, also detailed how much time they spent playing board games, spending time in front of screens, reading, knitting and other sedentary activities.
According to the results, 562 of the women (8.5%) had fibroids, and these rates were highest in people over the age of 50.
But there are simple ways to counteract the damage done by sitting, experts say. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine found that just five minutes of light walking every half hour offset the risks of sitting.
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