A new study suggests that women who sit for long periods are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Risk factors linked to diabetes, such as inflammation and insulin resistance, rose with long sitting in women, but no such link was found in men.
Even women who did moderate or vigorous exercise were still at risk of diabetes if they sat still for long periods. This has important implications for the health advice given to the public, according to the study, published in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Researchers from the University of Leicester in the UK recruited about 500 British people taking part in a diabetes screening programme. Participants reported how much time they had spent sitting in the previous week, and the researchers took blood samples for diabetes tests.
On average, women spent five hours a day sitting and men six hours.
Several factors linked to diabetes risk, such as insulin resistance and inflammatory proteins (CRP and interleukin 6), were raised. This held even after taking body mass index (BMI) into account, which matters because fat tissue releases these substances.
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