Sedentary Behavior and Incident Dementia Among Older Adults

PMID: 37698563
Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37698563/
Video: https://youtu.be/fzC8hTlRtEg

Over half of all Americans spend more than 9.5 hours a day sedentary. Higher sedentary time has been associated with the development of cognitive and structural brain aging and metabolic disorders. This study looked at accelerometry data from older adults to determine the association of sedentary behavior with incident dementia.

Compared to 9.27 hours of sedentary time per day, there was an 8%, 63%, and 221% increased risk of dementia for 10 hours per day, 12 hours per day, and 15 hours per day of sedentary time, respectively.

There are numerous ways to prevent excess sedentary time, such as standing desks, under-desk mini bicycles, or walking treadmills. Techniques like setting reminders on your phone, the 20-8- 2 method, parking far away from your destination (if safe), taking the stairs, and putting items out of reach to force you to get up are some techniques to increase your movement throughout the day. I'll often randomly do some push-ups, jumping jacks, or squats to keep the blood moving. It helps that my Oura ring will remind me if I forget. What do you do to keep from being too sedentary?

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Racial Disparities in Obesity-Related Cardiovascular Mortality in the United States: Temporal Trends From 1999 to 2020

PMID: 37671611
Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37671611/
Video: https://youtu.be/y9EWoDRBTxM

From 2017 to 2020, the rate of obesity increased by 10% from the preceding decade to 41.9% of the US population. The estimated yearly cost of obesity is 173 billion dollars. This study aimed to evaluate obesity-related cardiovascular mortality in the US between 1999 and 2020. Cardiovascular diseases are still the #1 killer of Americans, with more than 600,000 deaths yearly.

They found that the primary cardiovascular causes of death were related to ischemic heart disease (think blockages in arteries) and conditions related to hypertension (48% of adults have hypertension). They found a 3x increase in cardiovascular mortality rates related to obesity between 1999 and 2020. Studies show that even a 5% decrease in body weight can significantly improve cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, blood sugars, and lipids. Despite  what you may have heard, recent evidence supports obesity as an independent and causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

I'll be covering a study next week that has helped change my mind on how I view obesity medicine. We developed WeightWise™ at Nimbus Healthcare to provide affordable solutions to combat the obesity epidemic.