Being sedentary or having little activity in childhood increases heart size, which increases with increasing time spent sitting or being inactive, according to new research.
Excessive increase in the mass and size of the heart, known as left ventricular hypertrophy, is a known risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and premature death in adults.
However, about three or four hours of light physical activity a day, including running errands and playing outdoor games, reverses the increase in heart mass, with more such activity being associated with better heart function, the researchers say. According to those who observed child and 13-year-old adolescent participants.
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“There is growing evidence that childhood immobility is a health threat that needs to be taken seriously,” said Andrew Agbaje, a physician and associate professor of clinical epidemiology and child health at the University of Eastern Finland.
“There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way we look at childhood sedentary behavior, as growing evidence points to a ticking time bomb,” said Agbaje, author of the study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
For the study, researchers followed nearly 1,700 children ages 11 to 24 from the ’90s Kids Cohort at the University of Bristol, UK. At the beginning of the study, children spent about six hours a day doing sedentary activities, which increased to nine hours a day as they became young adults.
Participants wore an accelerometer device (to track motion) on their waist for a period of 4–7 days at ages 11, 15, and 24 and had echocardiography of their heart structure and function at ages 17 and 24. The measurement was taken.
Other aspects such as lifestyle factors and socio-economic status were also analyzed, as well as fasting blood samples for cholesterol, glucose, insulin and C-reactive protein – an indicator of inflammation.
The researchers found that over a seven-year period during which teenagers grew into young adults, cardiac expansion associated with increased sedentary time contributed 40 percent of the total increase in heart mass.
Being sedentary or inactive was found to increase heart mass, regardless of obesity or high blood pressure status.
The team also found that light physical activity nearly halved the increase in heart mass over the entire follow-up period.
“Light physical activity is an effective solution to sedentariness. It is easy to accumulate three to four hours of physical activity per day.
“Examples of light physical activity include outdoor games, playing on the playground, walking the dog, running errands for parents, walking and biking to the shopping mall or school, walking in the park, playing in the woods, gardening, casual Basketball, soccer, floorball, golf, Frisbee, etc. We can encourage children and teens to participate in light physical activity daily for better heart health,” Agbaje said.
