Death By Couch

An editorial putting forth the argument that exercise is beneficial which on its face appears to be an accepted premise. Hopefully the actual research will offer a bit more detail and specifics. When we tried to verify the claim that couching can kill you.

We found this information at University of Kansas Medical Center (UKMC) Exercise and the Brain: KU Medical Center Collaborating with the YMCA in Innovative Study, the results of which should be available in about a year.

While we could not find the Swedish editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) we did find this article relating to exercise and Alzheimer. What do you do when you can't remember if you exercised or to exercise?

Exercise is beneficial for patients with Alzheimer's disease: A call to action - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurological disorder associated with aging, and has a global prevalence of 6% in people over the age of 65.

1. It is also the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 50-60% of all cases.
2. The increase in life expectancy of the world population is expected to translate into many more cases of dementia – it is estimated that 1 in 85 persons worldwide will be affected by AD in 2050.
3. Clearly Alzheimer’s disease is a major public health problem. (BJSM)

"Long periods of sitting at desk can cost you your life," according to the Yahoo News Article. Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), Elin Ekblom-Bak and colleagues from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said that sitting still should be recognised as a risk to health, independently of taking too little exercise.

"One study compared two groups of sedentary office workers, one of whom had regular breaks to move around while the other remained sitting for up to eight hours a day. The group that had the breaks had better blood lipid levels and blood glucose and less obesity."

"Another study from Australia showed that for every extra hour women spent sitting, their risk of metabolic syndrome - a pre-cursor of diabetes and heart disease, rose by a quarter, regardless of how much exercise they took. Dr Ekblom-Bak said: "It is important to have a five minute break from desk work every 45 minutes. Don't email colleagues - walk across the office to give them the message. Take a coffee break or put the printer in the next room. I am a desk worker and I try to do it. It is not difficult but sometimes you get lost in your work and you forget about it."(ANI)

When the story appeared in Medical News Today (MNT) it includes a PDF from the British Journal of Sports Medicine that says - "We need to consider that we are dealing with two distinct behaviours and their effects:

1.  the benefits of regular moderate to vigorous-intensity physical exercise and
2.  the risks of too much sitting and limited non-exercise everyday life activity. If found to be true, the clinical importance and implication of this new paradigm is extensive. In the future, the focus in clinical practice and guidelines should not only be to promote and prescribe exercise, but also to encourage people to maintain their intermittent levels of non-exercise daily activities. Climbing stairs rather than using elevators and escalators, 5 minutes of break during sedentary work, or walking to the store rather than taking the car will be as important as exercise. In the demanding and stressful society of the present, to prescribe these low and minimally time-consuming efforts may encourage many people with problems in maintaining a sufficient level of exercise.

We found it. Thanks to the MNT we actually find the editorial though only in this PDF format.

If the goal of the father is to as, Chris Rock says to "If you can keep your son off the pipe and your daughter off the pole, you're ahead of the game." Then the goal for children and the married is too keep your parents and mate from being alone in old age.

"Elderly women are less likely than men to live in a family setting. After age 75, most women are widowed and live alone, while most men are married and live with their wives."

"Elderly women (16 percent) were more likely to be poor in 1992 than elderly men (9 percent). Of the 2.3 million elderly poor who lived alone in 1992, 2.0 million were women."

"In 1990, elderly with a self-care or mobility limitation were more likely to be poor (20 percent) than elderly without such limitations (11 percent)."

The Census article "65+ in the US 2005" (PDF)

Sitting Time and Mortality from All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer(ACSM) comparing the editorial to a twelve (12) year study of 17,013 Canadians 18-90 yr of age. Results: There were 1832 deaths (759 of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 547 of cancer) consistent with our areas and the nation's causes of death.

We can agree with the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in that we should get off the couch to use the bathroom every 45 minutes. We'd even go so far as to suggest we do so every half hour as long as we don't have to walk up stairs. After all - all that sitting isn't good for the gluteus maximus.

In March 2008 Australian researchers began testing a trial in Melbourne and Sweden called PBT2. Now there's been progress as the trials move to "a very preliminary stage of development, examples of new exciting drug therapies include: PBT2, which opposes A-beta production, and has been shown to improve the brain function of people in early stages, Rember, a drug which is showing an 81 per cent improvement in the rate of mental decline, and AL 108, a drug administered by way of nasal spray." The article refers to Alzheimer's Society of Canada but the research information is old and starting on its second year since its revision in 2008.