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Monthly Archives: February 2015

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Mackenzie Wardrope with baby Addy and husband Gregory. Photo from Mackenzie Wardrope

By Jenni Culkin

Her struggle has become one that is shared with the entire community.

Residents have been giving comfort, hope and encouragement to 1-year-old Adelaide “Addy” Marie Wardrope and her family as she battles a rare genetic disorder rarely seen by area doctors. It was recently discovered that Addy, the granddaughter of Three Village resident Bridget McCormick, has a mutated SCN8A genome and is one of only a handful to ever be diagnosed with such a condition.

“She gets horrible seizures where she will hold her breath for two minutes and turn purple,” said Mackenzie Wardrope, Addy’s mother, “It’s been the hardest experience of my life.”

Wardrope now lives in Maryland with baby Addy and her husband Gregory but grew up in the Three Village community and still checks in with her mother, McCormick, who works in the soup kitchen at St. James Roman Catholic Church.

According to the Frontiers in Genetics academic journal, “the mutation causes seizures, developmental delays, and other neurological complications.” But even through the struggle of conditions, Wardrope remains extremely optimistic.

“She’s an amazing fighter,” Wardrope said about her daughter, mentioning countless hospital visits where Addy would try to lift her head up even under sedation.

Wardrope said she credits much of her early support to a Facebook page dedicated to Addy, where other families going through similar situations as Addy find inspiration to be courageous and fight through the disease.

The family’s tie to the community has given them a strong support system, Wardrope said. Approximately 3,000 families attend the St. James Roman Catholic parish and many of them are involved with helping with or donating to Addy’s fund.

One of Addy’s supporters, Tony Casale of St. James Roman Catholic Church’s and the Kiwanis Club of the Three Village-Brookhaven Township, has been acting as Addy’s Long Island advocate. Casale works with McCormick at the church.

“A lot of people from the church have been very generous since they started the fund,” Casale said.

The fund, which is contributed to by the GoFundMe.com website, has raised $9,835 as of Wednesday.

“Hugs and kisses to the Wardrope family. You’re in my thoughts and prayers,” Pamela Oelerich posted on GoFundMe with her $50 donation.

In addition to Oelerich’s kind donation, 93 other people left money with the fund within four months. Some left sweet messages while others made their donations anonymously. No matter what the intention of the donor, each donation is just one more step toward peace of mind and ease for Addy’s parents in Maryland, her family said.

The Kiwanis Club and Ward Melville High School’s Key Club have also been a tremendous source of leadership and advocacy for Addy’s situation.

Kyra Durko, president of the Ward Melville Key Club and a Village Times Herald person of the year for 2014, has also put forth a huge effort toward helping Addy and her family through their times of trouble.  She created a website for the events for Addy and has reached out to the Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts in her area, providing the young people with the opportunity to help lead a charitable cause.

“This is what the Key Club is all about,” Durko said about the time she spent planning events for Addy.

The Kiwanis Club also plans on raising approximately $1,000 during their family game night fundraiser, Casale said.

“Thank God for the Key Club and the Kiwanis,” Casale said about the events that are being orchestrated in Addy’s honor. “Even if we don’t solve the problem, there’s an idea of giving a little bit of hope to this family.”

To contribute to Addy’s medical fund, visit www.gofundme.com/addysmedical. Or, attend the talent show in Addy’s honor at Ward Melville High School on Feb. 26 or the family game night on Feb. 28 at the Setauket Neighborhood House.

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Wouldn’t it be great if cardiovascular disease (CVD) were rare? It’s not like traveling to Mars and back. It is something we have the tools to make happen in the present. However, reality is different from the fantasy. Though fewer people are dying from this compilation of diseases (strokes and heart disease), it still tops the list. In fact, a 30-year-old has a one-in-two chance of developing CVD in his or her lifetime (1). Now that we have shock and awe, where are we with this disease?
We know that greater than 90 percent of the patients that will suffer from CVD have at least one risk factor (2). Most of these risk factors are modifiable. They are the seven pillars: blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, diet, exercise, smoking status and blood sugar. If we control them, the risk of CVD goes down dramatically (3). However, very few of us do it without medication (4).
Factors that might positively influence these pillars include HDL “good cholesterol,” activity, exercise, diet and drugs. We will investigate this further.

DO WE HAVE A GOOD PREDICTOR?
What may be the best potential predictor of cardiovascular disease? Is it BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio or sticky bun consumption? To be fair, I don’t think there has been a study done on how many sticky buns it takes to predict CVD, but they certainly contribute. The answer is in the study that follows.
In a recent prospective (forward-looking) study, results showed that waist-to-hip ratio was a better predictor of CVD than either BMI or waist circumference (5). The researchers used a biomarker of atherosclerosis (plaques in the arteries) to measure CVD risk. To measure atherosclerosis and confirm which anthropomorphic (body habitus) measurement was most useful, a Doppler of the carotids and a brachial-ankle pulse wave were used. In postmenopausal women, it appeared that waist-to-hip ratio was directly correlated with carotid Dopplers and brachial-ankle measurements. Those with waist-to-hip ratios above 0.86 were considered at higher risk for atherosclerosis and thus CVD. Waist circumference did correlate to brachial-ankle results, but not to carotid Dopplers. This is best explained by a potential postmenopausal redistribution of fat from the hips and buttock to visceral fat in the belly.

SAY NO TO DRUGS
(FOR PREVENTION)
Would you take a pill once a day with no side effects and no cost for the rest of your life if it meant preventing cardiovascular disease? Of course you would — or would you? In a recent study, patients were asked this very question and the results might be a surprise (6). Approximately one-third of participants would rather lose several months of life, about 12 weeks, than take a single once-a-day drug to prevent CVD. In fact, 20 percent of the participants were even willing to go as far as to pay $1,000 not to take such a medication. Mind you, about half of the participants were already taking three medications. Even more intriguing, it was the participants who were already taking pills that were least likely to want to add the hypothetical CVD prevention pill. Therefore, we need to reduce risk factors in other ways with lifestyle.

COMMON SENSE SAYS THAT
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE INCREASES RISK BUT …
We all know that high blood pressure is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and those who are over the age of 60 will have the highest probability of having CVD. However, in a recent observational study, results show that younger patients with isolated high systolic blood pressure (SBP) have a significantly increased risk of CVD (7). Systolic is the top blood pressure reading number, and isolated high SBP means greater than 140 mmHg with a normal <90 mmHg diastolic (bottom number) pressure. Study participants were between the ages of 18 and 45.
Those who had a higher SBP had a significantly greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than those who did not have elevated pressure over a 31-year duration. It turned out that 25 percent of the men and about half as many women had isolated high SBP. However, the women had a greater risk of dying. However, there were several confounding factors that make this not the best type of study.

HDL: IS HIGHER BETTER?
For the longest time, we have thought that high levels of HDL had a protective effect against cardiovascular disease. But this paradigm may not be true. In fact, in a recent study, results show that it may have to do more with functionality of HDL than with the actual number (8). The baseline number for HDL had no impact on reducing cardiovascular risk but functionality did.
Functionality is referred to as the cholesterol-efflux capacity. The cholesterol-efflux occurs when HDL helps remove cholesterol from cells in the arterial walls and shifts it back into the liver. The patients with the highest quartile of cholesterol-efflux capacity had a two-thirds reduction in CVD risk compared to the lowest quartile. The better this process is working, the lower risk of CVD. Thus, it does not relate as much to the level of HDL in the blood but as to its functionality. This suggests that raising HDL by drug therapy may not be the most effective approach. To clarify and make for a more vivid image, as Dean Ornish, M.D., professor of medicine at UCSF has written, if you think of HDL as dump trucks, adding more dump trucks at a stoplight only piles up the trucks; it does not make for more effective transport.

THE DIETARY EFFECT IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS
Many of us try to live a healthy life by managing our diets. However, not all diets are created equal when it comes to cardiovascular risk. In a recent meta-analysis (a group of 12 randomized controlled trials), the results disappointingly show that four popular diets did not decrease the cardiovascular disease risk, nor did they result in a substantial decrease in weight over the long term, compared to the placebo group (9). These diets included Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach and Zone.
Though Weight Watchers did show a significant initial weight loss, some of the weight was regained over time. The duration of the studies was between one and two years. There was no significant effect on markers for cardiovascular risk, such as cholesterol levels, blood pressure and sugar control.
It is disheartening to think that some diets don’t have any effect on cardiovascular disease. So what do we do? It turns out that a diet that has high levels of enterolactone, a biomarker for fiber and vegetables, has shown significant 65 percent reductions in cardiovascular events and mortality in men (10). Thus, a plant-based diet rich in vegetables and fiber has an impressive benefit. Diets such as Mediterranean-type and DASH diets are rich in these components.
Therefore, a productive way to make cardiovascular disease rare is to know your risk factors and to make lifestyle changes that include a plant-rich diet and activity. There are simple ways to determine risk, with waist-to-hip ratio as a useful tool. Reduce your waistline and you reduce your ratio, thus your risk. Eliminating these risk factors will make the probability of suffering from CVD that much less likely.
REFERENCES
(1) Lancet. 2014 May;383(9932):1899-911. (2) uptodate.com. (3) Circulation. 2010;121(4):586-613. (4) JAMA. 2012;307(12):1273-83. (5) Maturitas. online Jan. 12, 2015. (6) Circß Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. online Feb. 3, 2015. (7) J Am Coll Cardiol. 2015;65(4):327-35. (8) N Engl J Med. 2014;371(25):2383-93. (9) Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2014;7:815-827. (10) Lancet. 1999;354(9196):2112.

Dr. Dunaief is a speaker, author and local lifestyle medicine physician focusing on the integration of medicine, nutrition, fitness and stress management.  For further information, go to the website www.medicalcompassmd.com and/or consult your personal physician.

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In the blistering heat of the summer, when the three H’s — hazy, hot and humid — dominate the weather forecast, people gravitate toward the refreshing stream of comfort from an air conditioner. Similarly, when a polar vortex descends, people seek the warmth from a heater to help unfurl frozen fingers.

Ya Wang, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University, is working on a type of vent that will direct the soothing air toward people wherever they are, whether they’re cozying up on a couch, dropping down at a desk, or resting in a recliner.

Teaming up with professor Lei He and professor Qibing Pei at the University of California, Los Angeles, Wang and her partners recently received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a proposal that will make the vents for these air conditioners and heaters more efficient, lowering the cost to heat or cool a room.

Wang and her collaborators are developing a vent that will enable the air conditioner or heater to work less hard at changing the temperature in the parts of a room where a filing cabinet, a ficus tree, or a fireplace is, targeting the soothing air at the room’s occupants.

The new vent could generate 30 percent savings through such directed flow, SBU estimates. “We can regulate the airflow velocity by a special design and adjust the temperature to whatever is needed,” Wang said. “This will adjust automatically to regulate the airflow velocity back to the occupant.”

Wang is the principal investigator on the project, which means she collaborated on the idea and put it together.

Unlike academic funds, which require researchers to conduct experiments and produce data, this grant was awarded to produce a product.

Aside from coordinating the effort, Wang will also focus on developing the harvesters, which will provide a power supply for the on-board sensors and actuators. Wang and her collaborators estimate a cost of less than $20 per unit, with a $60 per year per unit electricity savings.

Jeff Ge, chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at SBU, said Wang is one of six new faculty members hired in the past two years. He said she received positive reviews for her research and teamwork.

“The work of Dr. Wang and her colleagues to enhance energy efficiency is one of the most important research endeavors for our state and society,” Samuel Stanley, president of SBU, said in a statement.

Apart from her work on the new vent, Wang spends about a quarter of her time teaching, 65 percent of her time on academic research, advising graduate and undergraduate students, and about 10 percent of her time in community service. She participates in a seminar for women in science and engineering, and encourages women to enter these fields.

She is working through other grants on energy-related research. With the U.S. Department of Transportation, she is developing ways to tap into the vibrational energy from subway trains and from the wind these cars generate to power sensors that monitor the track. As it stands, the DOT sends people to the tracks to make sure they are functioning correctly. By reusing other forms of energy, the department can create a more extensive monitoring system that won’t involve as many potentially hazardous trips onto the tracks for transit workers.

Wang said soldiers in the field often carry a few hundred tons of batteries to power electronics and communication systems. She is working with the U.S. Navy to generate power by walking or running. To be sure, that won’t provide all the necessary energy, but it can supply some of the power for electronics or communications.

A Smithtown resident, Wang woke up one night to the sounds of her smoke alarm battery indicating it needed replacing.

She’s working on a circuit that will use vibrational energy for the detector. She has a one-year old nephew and sees an opportunity to create batteries that tap into vibrational energy or the temperature difference between a toy and the air to provide power.

With all her interests in energy for commercial applications, Wang would be a compelling candidate to work in industry. Why, then, did she choose to come to SBU, an academic home where she’s worked for 18 months?

“My dream, since I was a kid,” in Shandong Province in China, was “to be a teacher,” she said. “I enjoy working with new students.”

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The solar panels on his house in Dix Hills help provide about a third of the energy he and his family use. When he drives around Long Island and sees plumes of smoke from power plants, he looks to see where it’s heading.

Energy and environmental conservation aren’t just hobbies or personal philosophies ­— they are part of what Vasilis Fthenakis teaches as a senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

Fthenakis helped improve the environmental impact of solar cells, working several years ago to eliminate lead, which can be dangerous to humans and to the environment, from the manufacture of solar panels. He has helped guide the industry to minimize the environmental, health and safety risks of solar cells.

Fthenakis recently returned from a trip to Chile, where he is encouraging the use of solar panels in a country that is often bathed in sunlight. “It’s the best place in the world for solar,” he said. It rarely rains and most of the land that is available for installation is up on high altitudes, he said.

Fthenakis, who was born and raised in Greece, has worked for about a year with several Chilean organizations to discuss the benefits and realities of solar energy.

Chile now imports coal, natural gas and diesel fuel. If the country produced its own energy, it could cut its energy costs, he said. It could take up to five years to see significant effects on the national economy, he estimated.

The South American nation has been ramping up its solar efforts. A few years ago, Chile generated no power from sunlight. That rose to 10 megawatts in 2012, 189 megawatts in August last year and currently stands at about 500 megawatts.

“We’re talking about tremendous growth,” Fthenakis said. Chile has a plan to boost renewable energy, which includes solar, wind and some hydroelectric plants, to 12 percent by 2020 and 20 percent by 2025. Fthenakis believes solar will be the biggest constituent in the mix.

While Chile doesn’t have the same oil, gas, coal and nuclear lobbies as the United States does, it does present some challenges to boosting solar energy, including inertia, Fthenakis said. “Most people don’t want to change,” he added, including people in other countries around the world.

In 2008, Fthenakis and two other authors wrote a cover story for Scientific American, titled “A Solar Grand Plan,” about the benefits and reliability of solar energy. At the time, solar was contributing 0.1 percent of energy to the capacity in the U.S. That number has climbed to 2 percent.

The article was translated into 11 languages and has raised his profile around the world. He has also traveled to Abu Dhabi to discuss the feasibility of tapping into the sun-driven renewable resource. As with Chile, these interactions have developed through a combination of approaches from other countries and an interest on Fthenakis’ part.

In addition to his work at BNL, Fthenakis teaches two environmental courses at Columbia: Air Pollution Prevention and Control, and Photovoltaics Systems Engineering and Sustainability.

As for his research at BNL, Fthenakis said he is involved in all aspects and impacts in evaluating energy alternatives. That can include affordability, which addresses direct and hidden costs, resource availability and environmental impact.

Fthenakis has been working at BNL for 34 years, where he has earned the respect of his colleagues. He is “a world-renowned expert in issues of safety of photovoltaic systems and, more broadly, in issues of deployment, efficiency, practicality and the like,” said Stephen Schwartz, a senior scientist in the Biological, Environmental & Climate Sciences Department at BNL, who has known Fthenakis for about 20 years.

Fthenakis’ wife, Christina, is an executive director in research and development at Estée Lauder Companies. The couple have a daughter, Antonia, who is doing her residency in dermatology at Stony Brook and a 21-year-old son Michael who is exploring his career options.

Fthenakis said he and his family visit beaches on Long Island or wherever they travel. When they find litter, they help dispose of it in a safe place.

“Solar energy and the environment defines the way I live,” Fthenakis said.

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Jane O’Sullivan creates her romantic stories from home in Setauket. Image from Jane O’Sullivan

By Jenni Culkin

In a green-and-white rustic home that overlooks a small lake in Setauket, resident Jane O’Sullivan recently wrote her first romance novel, “Lady Elinor’s Wicked Adventures,” which takes place in the Victorian era of Italy.

She published the book under the pen name Lillian Marek and maintains a Facebook page under the same name with hopes of conveying some interesting thoughts, ideas and opinions from readers.

The book has earned a rating of 4.6 stars on Amazon.com. Her book received a similar average rating of 4.5 stars on the Barnes & Noble website.

O’Sullivan, who was once an editor with Times Beacon Record Newspapers, said she always loved to read and write, dating back to when she was just a little girl.

“I can’t remember ever wanting to do anything else,” she said, “I read just about anything I could get my hands on. My mother used to say, ‘Will you stop reading and go out and play?’”

O’Sullivan is now a proud wife, mother of two and a grandmother of four, who has lived in Setauket since the year 1974. Before Setauket, O’Sullivan was a resident of Jackson Heights, Queens.

She made the switch from a busy urban life to a quiet suburban life in Setauket after she found out that her hometown would not provide the education that she had in mind for her children.

Jane O’Sullivan photo from the author
Jane O’Sullivan photo from the author

Her parents, who lived in Sound Beach, connected her with a real estate agent who eventually introduced her to her current lakeside house. O’Sullivan affectionately described the area as a “comfortable place to live.” She also said that when she drives through the locale, it almost feels like the countryside to her.

“I believe age is strictly mental,” O’Sullivan said with a smile on her face, “but I am definitely old enough to be retired.”

As O’Sullivan entered her retirement, a friend suggested mystery and romance novels as a new endeavor.

After reading some of the recommended books, including titles such as “Mr. Impossible,” O’Sullivan recalls the desire to try writing her own romance novels.

O’Sullivan said her friends and readers often ask her why she chose to write romance novels.

“Writing romance isn’t much different from writing regular novels, except that you have to make it end happily,” O’Sullivan said. She compared it to solving a mystery at the end of a mystery novel. Mystery novels would be incomplete without naming a culprit at the end just as romance novels would be without a “happily ever after,” she said.

And she is not done just yet. O’Sullivan is set to release three new books, including “Lady Emily’s Exotic Journey,” due out in August.

“It’s an adventure story,” O’Sullivan said of her next book. She added that the story takes place in Assyria and features river pirates, which she said would make the story an interesting read. Lady Emily, she said, is the sister of the main character in her first book in the same general time period.

 

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Ramones band member visits Book Revue

Marky Ramone poses with his memoir. Photo by Chris Mellides

By Chris Mellides

Long Islanders filled Book Revue storefront in Huntington Tuesday night for a special appearance from Marky Ramone, drummer of the seminal punk band the Ramones.

Born Marc Steven Bell, the 62-year-old Brooklyn native spent 15 years drumming for the iconic band and has played with a variety of musicians dating back to his high school years. He is the only surviving member of the iconic group, and visited the North Shore to take part in a Q&A session before signing memorabilia and copies of his new autobiography, “Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life As A Ramone.”

Leading to the night’s event, roughly 100 rabid Ramones fans anxiously awaited Bell’s arrival. Among them was Smithtown resident Cynthia Cone, 42.

Cone said that when she was a teenager, she dated a drummer who turned her on to the Ramones, and it wasn’t long before she was hooked.

“Their shows were so high-energy,” said Cone. “If you listen to their bootlegs, it’s almost like you hear the countdown, and then it takes you a second to register what they’re even playing because they were so raw.”

Despite not achieving the success they deserved while the band’s original members were still alive, Cone said there’s no denying the Ramones’ impact.

“You hear so many bands like Rage Against the Machine, and even hip hop artists [credit] the Ramones. They were just such a huge influence across the board.”

Bell started playing drums in 1971 for the hard rock group known as Dust and would later audition for New York Dolls before working with Wayne “Jayne” County and Backstreet Boys. Later, he played with Richard Hell and the Voidoids, joining the band for the recording of their first record, “Blank Generation.”

In 1978, while drinking cheap beer at the legendary dive bar and venue CBGB, Bell was approached by bassist and soon-to-be band mate Douglas Glenn Colvin, also known as Dee Dee, and was asked to play drums for the band.

Asked about being on the road with the Ramones, Bell shared his experience touring America in the band’s van and likened it to being trapped in a floating mental institution on wheels.

“We had our trusty Ford Econoline 15-passenger van and we all had our assigned seats, Bell said. “We had a lot of quality time together and we were all different individuals — maybe that’s why the music was so great.”

Later, Bell discussed his band’s role in the 1979 Roger Corman-produced cult classic, “Rock ‘N’ Roll High School,” a musical comedy in which rebellious teens get even with their school principal against the backdrop of Ramones musical performances scattered throughout the film.

“[Film director] Allan Arkush came to New York and saw us play [and] he loved it. We toured our way from the east to west coast in 1979 and the next thing we knew, it was ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll High School,’” Bell said. “Making the movie was interesting [and] it was pretty funny seeing four aliens, me, Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee, in the movie amongst the normals.”

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Let’s begin with a pretest. I want to make it clear that a pretest is not to check whether you know the information, but that you have an open mind and are willing to learn.

1)Which may have the most detrimental impact on your health?
a.    Smoking
b.    Obesity
c.    Inactivity
d.    A and C
e.    All have the same impact

2)People who exercise are considered active.
a.    True
b.    False

3)Inactivity may increase the risk of what? Select all that apply.
a.    Diabetes
b.    Heart disease
c.    Fibromyalgia
d.    Mortality
e.    Disability

A snowy and icy winter is upon us, and our thoughts turn to hibernation and not falling. Who wants to be active when it’s cold and slippery outside? Let me delineate between exercise and inactivity; they are not complete opposites. When we consider exercise, studies tend to focus on moderate to intense activity. However, light activity and being sedentary, or inactive, tend to get clumped together. But there are differences between light activity and inactivity.
Light activity may involve cooking, writing, and strolling. (1). Inactivity involves sitting as in watching TV or in front of a computer screen. Inactivity utilizes between 1-1.5 metabolic equivalent units — better known as METS — a way of measuring energy, while light activity requires greater than 1.5 METS. Thus, in order to avoid inactivity, we don’t have to exercise in dreaded wintery conditions. We need to increase our movement.
What are the potential costs of inactivity? According to the World Health Organization over 3 million people die annually from inactivity. This ranks inactivity in the top five potential underlying causes of mortality (2). The consequences of inactivity are estimated at 1 to 2.6 percent of health-care dollars, which sounds small, but translates into actual dollars spent in the U.S. of between $38 billion and $100 billion (3).
How much time do we spend inactive? Good question. In a recent observational study of over 7,000 women with a mean age of 71 years old, 9.7 waking hours were spent inactive or sedentary. These women wore an accelerometer to measure movements. Interestingly, as BMI and age increased, the amount of time spent sedentary also increased (4).
Inactivity may increase the risk of mortality and plays a role in increasing risk for diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and fibromyalgia. It can also increase the risk of disability in older adults. Surprisingly, inactivity may be worse than smoking and obesity. Even for those who exercise, inactivity can still occur. There can be a doubling of the risk for diabetes in those who sit for long periods of time, compared to those who sit the least (5).
By the way, the answers to the pretest are 1) e; 2) b; 3) a, b, c, d, e.
Let’s look at the evidence.
DOES EXERCISE TRUMP INACTIVITY?
We tend to think that exercise trumps all; if you exercise, you can eat what you want and, by definition, you’re not sedentary. Right? Not exactly. Diet is important, and you can still be sedentary even if you exercise. In a meta-analysis — a group of 47 studies — results show that there is an increased risk of all-cause mortality with inactivity, even in those who exercised (6). In other words, even if you exercise, you can’t sit for the rest of the day. The risk for all-cause mortality was 24 percent overall.
However, those who exercised saw a blunted effect with all-cause mortality, making it significantly lower than those who were inactive and did very little exercise: 16 percent versus 46 percent increased risk of all-cause mortality. So it isn’t that exercise is not important, it just may not be enough to reduce the risk of all-cause mortality if you are inactive for a significant part of the rest of the day.
In an earlier published study using the Women’s Health Initiative, results showed that those who were inactive most of the time had greater risk of cardiovascular disease (7). Even those who exercised moderately but sat most of the day were at increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Moderate exercise was defined as 150 minutes of exercise per week. Those at highest risk were women who did not exercise and sat at least 10 hours a day. This group had a 63 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease (heart disease or stroke).
However, those who sat fewer than five hours a day had a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular events. And those who were in the highest group for regular exercise (walking seven hours/week or jogging/running four-to-five hours/week) did see more benefit in cardiovascular health, even if they were inactive the rest of the day. Sitting longer did not have negative impact on the individuals in the high exercise level group.
WORSE THAN OBESITY?
Obesity is a massive problem in this country; it has been declared a disease itself and also contributes to other chronic diseases. But would you believe that inactivity has more of an impact than even obesity? In a newly published observational study, using data from the EPIC trial, inactivity might be responsible for two times as many premature deaths as obesity (8). This was a study involving 330,000 men and women.
Interestingly, the researchers created an index that combined occupational activity with recreational activity. They found that the greatest reduction in premature deaths (in the range of 16 to 30 percent) was between two groups, the normal weight and moderately inactive group versus the normal weight and completely inactive group. The latter was defined as those having a desk job with no additional physical activity. To go from the completely inactive to moderately inactive, all it took, according to the study, was 20 minutes of brisk walking on a daily basis.
ALL IS NOT LOST!
In another recent study evaluating 56 participants, walking during lunch time at work immediately improved mood (9). This small study clearly shows that by being more active at lunch time, there was a change for the better, increasing enthusiasm and reducing stress compared to in the morning before they had walked. Participants had to walk at least 30 minutes three times a week for 10 weeks; pace was not important.
So what have we learned thus far about inactivity? It is all relative. If you are inactive, increasing your activity to be moderately inactive by briskly walking for 20 minutes a day may reduce your risk of premature death significantly. Even if you exercise the recommended 150 minutes a week, but are inactive the rest of the day, you may still be at risk for cardiovascular disease. You can potentially further reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by increasing your activity with small additions throughout the day.
The underlying message is that we need to consciously move throughout the day, whether at work with a walk during lunch or at home with recreational activity. Those with desk jobs need to be most attuned to opportunities to increase activity. Simply setting a timer and standing or walking every 30-45 minutes may increase your activity levels and possibly reduce your risk. Just because the groundhog saw his shadow, don’t let it influence you to be inactive.
REFERENCES:
(1) Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2008;36(4):173-178. (2) WHO report: https://bit.ly/1z7TBAF. (3) forbes.com. (4) JAMA. 2013;310(23):2562-2563. (5) Diabetologia 2012; 55:2895-2905. (6) Ann Intern Med. 2015;162:123-132, 146-147. (7) J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013;61(23):2346-54. (8) Am J Clin Nutr. online January 24, 2015. (9) Scand J Med Sci Sports. Online Jan. 6, 2015.

Dr. Dunaief is a speaker, author and local lifestyle medicine physician focusing on the integration of medicine, nutrition, fitness and stress management.  For further information, go to the website www.medicalcompassmd.com and/or consult your personal physician.

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