- News>
- Health & Medicine
Sweeping the floor, cleaning the tables can keep you fit
New Delhi, Nov 04: It`s not just rigorous gymschedules which can help shed the extra flab as researcherssay daily chores like sweeping and scrubbing the floor,tossing a frisbee count, gardening and cleaning the tables tooamount to physical activity which can keep you fit.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted the fact
and is working on a global diet and physical activity strategy
which will be presented before the UN next year, says Dr
Reddy, also a WHO advisor.
The American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) too has broadened its definition of physical activity to
include daily activities. It recommends 30 minutes of moderate
physical activity on most days of the week, he says
"most of these activities were till some time back part of an
Indian women`s daily chores."
"But with increasing sedentary lifestyles, inactivity is
taking over and like Americans, Indians too are increasingly
becoming prone to obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and other
chronic diseases. But the burden of these diseases can be
reduced with half an hour of moderate-intensity physical
activity five or more days a week," he says.
According to a recent study conducted on urban Indians,
the inactivity rate in Indian women was around 50-60 per cent
compared to men, where it was 60-70 per cent. Insulin
resistance increases in the body due to physical inactivity
and the immediate fallout is diabetes, he says.
The focus is now on highlighting the importance of
physical activity in preventing heart attack, diabetes and
hypertension, says Dr Rajeev Passi, cardiologist, Sir Ganga
Ram Hospital.
The CDC, meanwhile has brought out a list of even less
intense activities for those who are scared even of moderate
exercise. These include playing video games, colouring,
sitting in a whirlpool bath and "purposeless wandering".
The report says an hour of such light activity is equal
to 30 minutes of moderate activity. Infact light activity
includes almost everything that involves motion and shooting a
pistol, fishing... anything that includes movement of "little
more than hands and fingers."
"And there is no need to do all the activity at one
stretch, it can be broken into ten-minute periods," says Dr
Reddy. "We must keep active throughout the day to burn
up more calories."
Bureau Report