The activity reduces blood sugar spikes by 58 percent after large meals

Sedentary lifestyles, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, have become a major contributor to health issues among people.

The solution, according to a new study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, is to take a five-minute light walk every half hour.

The research team, led by Dr. Keith Diaz, associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University, tested 11 healthy middle aged and older adults over the course of five separate days. They were asked to sit in a lab for eight hours to simulate a typical workday. On one of those days, the participants sat for the entire duration taking breaks only to use the bathroom. On the other days, different walking exercise routines were tried such as one minute walk after every 60 minutes of sitting and five minute walk after every half an hour of sitting.

“If we hadn’t compared multiple options and varied the frequency and duration of the exercise, we would have only been able to provide people with our best guesses of the optimal routine,” Diaz said in a statement.

The goal was to find the least amount of walking one could do to offset the harmful health effects of sitting. This was done by measuring changes in blood sugar levels and blood pressure – two important risk factors for heart disease. It was found that a five-minute light walk every half an hour was the only strategy that reduced blood sugar levels substantially compared with sitting all day. In particular, five-minute walks every half-hour reduced blood sugar spikes after eating by 58 percent.

That strategy also reduced blood pressure by four to five points compared with sitting all day. But shorter and less frequent walks improved blood pressure too. Even a one-minute light walk every hour reduced blood pressure by five points.

“Higher frequency and longer duration breaks (every 30 min for 5 min) should be considered when targeting glycemic responses, while lower doses may be sufficient for BP lowering,” the study says.

The participants in the study were also asked to rate their mental state through a questionnaire and it was found that the walking breaks provided mental health benefits as well. It helped participants feel less tired, better in their moods, and more energized.

“The effects on mood and fatigue are important,” Diaz says. “People tend to repeat behaviors that make them feel good and that are enjoyable.”

As it might not be possible for every adult to go for a five minute walk, the team is working on testing over 25 different strategies for offsetting the health harms of prolonged sitting. The aim is to find alternative strategies that yield comparable results to ultimately allow people to pick the strategy that works best for them and their lifestyle.