Inactive Lifestyle Raises your Risk for Coronary Heart Disease

BODY:
Under-exercising may be the root cause of increased rates of obesity than just caloric intake, a new study suggests. According to this study held by the researchers of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, an inactive lifestyle can be more blamed for obesity than just overeating.

The research team reviewed the results of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a United States-based national health study, from the year 1988 to 2010, comprising of diet, physical activity levels and obesity.

The investigating squad identified that there has been a substantial surge in both obesity and dormant lifestyle, despite the steady intake of daily caloric consumption through the years. They hypothesized that a precipitous drop in leisure-time activities may be the cause of a surprising jump in the number of people with obesity, particularly amongst young women.
The study group led by Dr. Uri Ladabaum, associate professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, pronounced that obesity and increased abdominal girth (central obesity) can spell doom for overall health and sometimes can be fatal.

According to the NHANES data, the number of women who aren’t participating in any leisure-time activities soared from 19.1% in 1988 to 51.7% in 2010. In men, the number jumped from 11.4% to 43.5% over the same time frame.

The study also found that during the above-mentioned period of time, the participants’ average BMI spiked 0.37% a year, while the central obesity numbers have grown from 46% to 61% in women and from 29% to 42% in men, both particularly worst among young women aged between 18 and 39.
“These changes have occurred in the context of substantial increases in the proportion of adults reporting no leisure-time physical activity, but in the absence of any significant population-level changes in average daily caloric intake. At the population level, we found a significant association between the level of leisure-time physical activity, but not daily caloric intake, and the increases in both BMI and waist circumference,” said Ladabaum in a statement.

The team opined that the study results again underscored how much importance exercise has on one’s overall health. Though all the data including caloric intake and activity levels are self-reported which can contain a few errors, finally the study infers an apparent link between obesity and sedentary behavior.

This study contraindicates the popular belief of a strong relation between obesity and excessive caloric intake. And contrary to this widely-acclaimed conception, a correlation between physical inactivity and high BMI numbers has been established.