from Journal of the American College of Cardiology
Sedentary behavior is known to be harmful to our hearts, but doctors at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center are among the first to show one of those harmful results. They say each additional hour of sitting each day is associated with a twelve percent higher likelihood of increased calcium deposits in arteries of the heart. People whose jobs require them to sit for long periods are urged to take hourly breaks to stand, walk around—even walk up a flight of stairs—to help in a small way, but then do strenuous exercise in the evening. Risks of sitting are not the same in everybody. For instance, some people are more susceptible to cholesterol buildup on the walls of their arteries and, over time, that can harden or calcify. The study appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.