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Breaking up prolonged sitting with standing, walking reduces postprandial glucose, insulin levels
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In postmenopausal women at high risk for type 2 diabetes, 5-minute bouts of standing or walking at a light intensity each half hour to break up prolonged sitting reduced postprandial glucose, insulin and nonesterified fatty acids levels.
“This simple, behavioral approach could inform future public health interventions aimed at improving the metabolic profile of dysglycemic individuals,” Joseph Henson, MD, of the Diabetes Research Centre at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, told Endocrine Today. “Habitual standing and light-intensity physical activity are behaviorally more ubiquitous than moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and may, therefore, provide appealing interventional targets in the promotion of metabolic health.”
Henson and colleagues evaluated 22 postmenopausal women (mean age, 66.6 years) with overweight/obesity and dysglycemia to determine the effect of breaking up prolonged sitting with short bouts of standing or walking on postprandial markers of cardiometabolic health.
On the first test day, women were randomly assigned to prolonged, unbroken sitting (control; 7.5 hours) or prolonged sitting broken up with standing or walking at a self-perceived light intensity (intervention; 5 minutes every 30 minutes). The next day, all participants underwent unbroken prolonged sitting.
The glucose incremental postprandial area under the curve (iAUC) was reduced by 34% with breaking up sitting with standing compared with the control condition (P = .022) and by 28% with breaking up sitting with walking (P = .009). There was a 20% reduction in insulin iAUC with breaking up sitting with standing (P = .045) and a 37% reduction with walking (P = .008) compared with prolonged sitting.
No significant differences were found with breaking up sitting with standing or walking for glucose (P = .717), insulin (P = .376) or nonesterified fatty acids (P = .398).
Triglyceride iAUC was not significantly reduced with any condition on day 1.
“This study demonstrates that breaking up prolonged sitting with 5-minute bouts of either standing or walking at a self-perceived light intensity every 30 minutes reduces postprandial glucose, insulin and free fatty acid responses in postmenopausal women at high risk of type 2 diabetes. ... Breaking sitting time with standing also attenuated the suppression of free fatty acids by 33% and by 47% when walking, compared with prolonged sitting,” Henson told Endocrine Toady. “Moreover, the observations for glucose (standing and walking) and insulin (walking only) persisted into the next day; therefore, some of the effects last for at least 24 hours after the initial activity stimulus.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: Henson reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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