Is it possible to be sedentary and healthy?

A lot of people don't exercise but appear otherwise heathy. They eat a balanced and nutritious diet, they're not carrying any extra weight, and they go easy on alcohol and treats. Are they just as healthy as people who are active?

As shown in a recent study by Inigo San-Millan and colleagues from the Department of Medicine in University of Colorado, the answer is an emphatic no.

It has already been established that lack of physical activity causes mitochondrial impairment, which in turn leads to diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver, hypertension, pancreatic cancer, dementia and Parkinson's disease, among others. However, the evidence for this has previously come from unhealthy sedentary people.

This new study is the first to show that healthy sedentary people also have metabolic, mitochondrial, and bioenergetic dysfunction. The fact that this leads to some of the worst and most widespread non-infectious diseases is sobering.

How the study was conducted

The study was in 2 parts. Firstly sedentary healthy and active healthy people were tested at rest. This is what they found:

• Mitochondrial respiration, a measure of how well the energy in food is stored in muscle cells, is 34% worse in sedentary healthy people.
• Pyruvate oxidation, a key connector in bioenergetic processes, is 37% worse.
• Fat oxidation, which is how fast fat is turned into energy, is 51% worse.

The second part of the study assessed the effectiveness of metabolic and mitochondrial processes during exercise. The results were:

• Max power output, a measure of muscle strength, is around 30% worse for sedentary people.
• VO_2max, a measure of endurance, is approximately 35% worse.
• Lactate clearance, an indicator of healthy muscle cells, is an astonishing 70% worse.

These results are robust and significant, and show a clear health difference between people who are active and those who aren't. Being sedentary is a shortcut to getting sick, and in ways that are horrible for those affected and their loved ones.

Conclusion

As the old saying goes, you can't outrun a bad diet. It turns out you can't diet your way to a long and healthy life either. Exercise combined with good nutrition is key to avoiding horrific disease later in life.

In the study the authors say it's a mistake to use healthy sedentary people as the control, or default group. The true default is active healthy people. That's pretty stark because it means that being inactive is the same as being in the early stages of disease.

Thankfully it's fully reversible, so if you're worried about your levels of activity give me a shout and we'll work together on a plan that suits you and works round your current commitments.