Study links childhood inactivity with heart enlargement, finds light activity could reverse effects

New Delhi, May 8. Being sedentary or performing little activity in childhood is associated with heart enlargement, which progressed with an increase in time spent sitting or being inactive, according to new research...

However, light physical activity of about three or four hours a day, including running errands and playing outdoor games, was found to reverse the increase in heart mass, with more of such activity being associated with better cardiac function, according to researchers who observed child and adolescent participants for 13 years...

"There is growing evidence that childhood sedentariness is a health threat that needs to be taken seriously," Andrew Agbaje, a physician and an associate professor of clinical epidemiology and child health at the University of Eastern Finland, said.. "There must be a paradigm shift in how we view childhood sedentariness, as the mounting evidence is pointing at a ticking time bomb," Agbaje, the author of the study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, said...

The researchers found that over a period of seven years, during which the adolescents grew into young adult, the heart enlargement associated with the increase in sedentary time contributed 40 per cent to the total increase in heart mass...

The team also found that light physical activity over the entire follow-up period reduced the increase in heart mass by about half.. "LPA is an effective antidote to sedentariness..

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