Everyday Health: Carli Carnish, assistant professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, explained the importance of activating your muscles as we get older. “I always tell my patients, ‘If you don’t move it, you lose it,’” said Carnish.
Physical activity has been shown to improve your memory, help you think, and minimize anxiety and depression.[1] But a new study shows that for older adults, regular exercise alone isn’t enough to reduce Alzheimer’s disease risk — they also need to spend less time sitting.[2]
“A lot of times, people think if they’re physically active, then they’re good,” says Marissa Gogniat, PhD, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh. While decades of research have illustrated the health benefits of exercise, she says less is known about the impact of sitting, even when someone is active.
“Even though the people in the study were pretty physically active, their sitting was still accounting for more risk for Alzheimer’s,” Dr. Gogniat says.
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How Much Sitting Is Too Much?
The study participants were sitting about 13 hours per day on average. However, researchers didn’t quantify exactly how much time sitting may lead to cognitive decline.
Generally, there’s “not a magic number” for how much is too much sedentary time, says Carli Carnish, DPN, RN, an assistant professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Nursing in Cleveland.
But the more you sit, she explains, the weaker your muscles often become, which makes it harder to be active. “I always tell my patients, ‘If you don’t move it, you lose it,’” Dr. Carnish says. This can quickly become a downward spiral for older adults, she says.