Nobody will argue with the fact that long periods of time spent sitting can negatively impact your health.  The good news is that according to Mary Elizabeth Dallas of HealthDay, this heath risk is easy to counter-balance. She reports on these recent findings in her article Short Walks Can Offset Long Stretches of Sitting. 

According to Dallas, American adults spent an average of eight hours each day sitting. This can cause blood to pool in the legs and can lead to cardiovascular problems, high cholesterol and metabolic diseases.  However, at recent study at IU’s School of Public Health in Bloomington shows that by taking a few 5-minute walks throughout the day, these negative effects can be negated. 

As someone who works in the healthcare field, it is unlikely that you spend a lot of time sitting while on the job, but patients with desk jobs may state that they need to sit for their jobs and that they do not have time to schedule time at the gym or for cardiovascular exercise. Let them know about these findings. It is likely that they can take five minute walks around the office several times a day and this small amount of activity can be quite beneficial to them.

Learn more about the study by reading Dallas’s article here and be sure to get the word out.