According to scientists, two weeks of lounging around when it’s Christmas season may cause a permanent damage to your health.
According to the researchers, this inactivity is sufficient for our muscles and bones to weaken and our heart and lungs to reduce in efficiency.
The scientists followed the health of 46 adults who were in their 20s and 30s or over 60 and they were told to make no more than 1500 steps per day for two weeks.
The Results Were Shocking, Claims Study
The end results showed that the risk was especially bad for elderly people who were weaker or in worse health and may suffer from major health deterioration.
Moreover, this period led to more fat buildup around the waist that could further elevate the chance for diabetes.
The team of researchers from the University of Liverpool claim that most of the studies of physical inactivity is focused on the extremer forms like bed rest of space flight that aren’t important to most healthy individuals.
Their study is therefore in a way unique because it looked at how the common lounging during Christmas and the reduction in physical activity can affect both younger and older people.
They used X-rays, computer scans, and weight-lifting tests to check out the changes in the participants’ health during this period of inactivity.
People often become less active when it’s the holiday season, when they’re stuck with the flu or a cold or simply when they’re stuck indoors because of bad weather.
What Were the Changes Discovered in the Participants?
Prior to the inactivity period, both of the groups did the same amount of physical activity. Each person normally walked an average of 10000 steps daily, but didn’t participate in vigorous exercise.
Even though fat gain and loss of muscles and bones is a natural occurrence of aging, the changes led to a reduced capacity of the participants to perform their daily activities.
However, though the data showed that the muscle strength and size and bone mass reduced equally in the both age groups, after two weeks, the older adults had less muscle mass and higher amount of fat than the other group.
Unfortunately, 5 percent of the heart and lung health reduced in the younger group and 10 percent in the adult group.
To conclude, these changes are more likely to have a negative influence on older people, rather than younger adults.
Sources:
