Women who sit down for long periods of time could age more quickly, research finds

Sitting down for long periods of time could make you age faster, according to new research.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that elderly women who sit for more than 10 hours a day with low physical activity have cells that are biologically older by eight years compared to women who are less sedentary.

A study of nearly 1,500 women aged 64 to 95 found that elderly women who did less than 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day and stayed sat down for more than 10 hours a day have shorter telomeres – the tiny caps on the end of DNA strands.

Telomeres naturally shorten and fray as a cell ages, but the process can be accelerated.

Aladdin Shadyab, lead author of the study with the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine, said: “Our study found cells age faster with a sedentary lifestyle. Chronological age doesn’t always match biological age.”

As part of the study, published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the participants completed questionnaires and wore an accelerometer on their right hip for seven consecutive days during waking and sleeping hours to track their movements.

“We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day, the national recommended guideline,” said Shadyab.”

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He added: “Discussions about the benefits of exercise should start when we are young, and physical activity should continue to be part of our daily lives as we get older, even at 80 years old.”

Shadyab and his research team believe they are the first to objectively measure how the combination of sedentary time and exercise can impact the ageing biomarker and he said future studies will examine how exercise relates to telomere length in younger populations and in men.

The women who took part in the study are part of the larger Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a national, longitudinal study investigating the determinants of chronic diseases in postmenopausal women.