Walking and Standing Cut Diabetes and Heart Disease Risk: Study

People who regularly indulge in walking and running not only manage to improve the health of their heart but also end up losing extra excess pounds around the waist line, giving the person a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI), a new research has revealed.

"We found that time spent walking rather than sitting was significantly associated with lower levels of blood sugar and blood fats," said Dr Genevieve Healy, senior research fellow at the University of Queensland.

During the study, 782 men and women between the ages of 36 to 80 year were given activity monitors to see how each many long each participant was sitting, lying down, standing up and walking or running in a day.

Researchers found that if a person walked for an extra 2 hours in a day rather than just sitting, he or she had 11 percent lower triglycerides (fats in the blood) and also 2 percent lower fasting blood sugar levels.

People who spent extra time standing also recorded higher average levels of 'good' cholesterol.

"In addition, average blood sugar levels fell by approximately 11 percent and average triglycerides by 14 percent for every two hours spent walking rather than sitting," the authors noted.

"The finding provide important preliminary evidence that strategies to increase the amount of time spent standing or walking rather than sitting may benefit the heart and metabolism of many people," Dr Healy explained.

"Get up for your heart health and move for your waistline," he advised in a paper appeared in the European Heart Journal.