A recent study has suggested that sitting for over 10.6 hours a day increases heart disease risks — even among people who meet the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per week.

In the study, published on Friday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers found that sitting for a long period is linked with “future adverse cardiovascular outcomes, with particularly prominent effects on heart failure and cardiovascular mortality”.

A team of researchers in the Mass General Brigham health care system analysed activity-tracker data from 89,530 UK Biobank participants, examining sedentary behaviour’s impact on atrial fibrillation, heart attacks, heart failure, and cardiovascular death.

Participants wore a triaxial accelerometer on their wrists for over seven days to track movement. After a median 8-year follow-up, analysis revealed that risks for atrial fibrillation and heart attack steadily increased over time.

About 5% of study participants developed atrial fibrillation, 2.1% developed heart failure, 2% had a heart attack, and a little less than 1% died from cardiovascular-related causes.

“Our findings really emphasize the importance of avoiding excess sitting… whether or not you’re physically active,” said Ezim Ajufo, the first study author and a cardiology fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“We would really recommend that as many people as possible avoid sitting more than 10.6 hours a day. That’s not a hard and fast threshold, but we think it’s a reasonable first step for guidelines and public health intervention.”

However, Ajufo said the research has some limitations. “The study is also observational, which means that while it can make associations, it can’t prove that sitting was the cause of the heart disease,” said the first study author.

The researchers recommended standing or walking for a few minutes every 30 to 60 minutes or transitioning between tasks with short walks.

“Exercise is critical, but avoiding excessive sitting appears separately important,” said Patrick Ellinor, the co-senior author, cardiologist and co-director of the Corrigan Minehan Heart Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Our hope is that this work can empower patients and providers by offering another way to leverage movement behaviors to improve cardiovascular health.”

Also speaking, Shaan Khurshid, another co-senior author and an electrophysiologist and faculty member in the Telemachus And Irene Demoulas Family Foundation Center for Cardiac Arrythmias at Massachusetts General Hospital, said: “our data supports the idea that it is always better to sit less and move more to reduce heart disease risk, and that avoiding excessive sitting is especially important for lowering risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death”.

Keith Diaz, an associate professor of behavioural medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, revealed that more research is needed to determine the specific risks and guidelines for what constitutes too much sitting.

The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has alerted Nigerians to the circulation of counterfeit Combiart dispersible tablets 20/120 mg in the country.

Combiart is a combination of artemether and lumefantrine 20/120 mg used to treat malaria.

NAFDAC said in a statement that the product is manufactured by Strides Arcolab Limited in India.

The agency said its officers from the post-marketing surveillance directorate discovered the product in the federal capital territory (FCT) and Rivers state.

“The laboratory report of the analysis carried out on the product revealed that it contained zero APIs. The product was also observed to have two different date markings,” the statement reads.

“The NAFDAC database of registered products has confirmed that the product license has expired and the NAFDAC registration number on it is wrong and not for the product.

“Counterfeit or falsified medicines endanger people’s health because they do not comply with regulatory standards, which means the safety, quality, and efficacy of these products are not ensured.

“The use of counterfeit medicines often fails to effectively treat diseases or conditions, leading to serious health consequences, including death.”

The agency asked importers, distributors, retailers, healthcare professionals, and caregivers to exercise caution and be vigilant within the supply chain to avoid the importation, distribution, sale, and use of counterfeit products.

In another development, NAFDAC said its investigation and enforcement team uncovered a trove of counterfeit medicines during a raid at Tyre Village, Trade Fair Complex, in Lagos.

The agency said in a statement that the operation led to the seizure of fake pharmaceuticals, including amoxicillin 500 mg, ampiclox capsules 500 mg, and packaging materials for Augmentin capsules 625 mg.

“The facility has been placed on hold, and all illegal products have been evacuated,” NAFDAC said.

“These counterfeit medicines, estimated at over N300 million, pose severe health risks, including treatment failure, organ damage, and potential carcinogenic effects due to unknown compositions.

“The suspect has been invited for questioning, and investigations are underway.”

A new study has suggested that older adults experiencing daytime sleepiness or a lack of enthusiasm for activities due to sleep issues may be at higher risk of developing motoric cognitive risk (MCR) syndrome, a condition that can precede dementia.

The new research, published on Wednesday in the journal Neurology, found that among participants who experienced excessive daytime sleepiness and a lack of enthusiasm, 35.5% developed MRC syndrome compared with 6.7% of people without those problems.

MCR is a predementia syndrome characterized by slow gait speed and cognitive complaints among older people who don’t already have dementia or a mobility disability. The risk of developing dementia more than doubles in people with this syndrome.

During the study, researchers examined data on 445 adults who were 76 years old on average and had no history of dementia. Participants took questionnaires for sleep and were asked about memory issues. Their walking speed was tested on a treadmill and then once a year for an average of three years.

The researchers assessed the participants’ sleep quality and quantity using the seven components of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

The index included subjective sleep quality, time it takes to fall asleep, sleep duration, sleep efficiency (ratio of total hours asleep to total hours in bed), sleep disturbances, use of sleep-inducing medication, and daytime dysfunction, such as having trouble staying awake during activities or feeling less enthusiasm to get things done.

The researchers found that 177 participants met the definition of poor sleepers, while 268 were considered good sleepers. 42 people had MCR at the start of the study, and another 36 developed it.

The study found that people with excessive daytime sleepiness and a lack of enthusiasm for activities were more than 3 times more likely to develop MCR syndrome than people who didn’t have these sleep-related problems.

However, Tara Spires-Jones, professor of neurodegeneration and director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, said the study has a few “serious” limitations.

“The sleep measurements were self-reported, not measured by a scientist, and these self-reports could be biased by people with memory issues,” Tara said.

“The participants in the study were also largely white, and the group was much smaller than similar single-timepoint studies, so the results will be stronger if confirmed in future studies.”

Victoire Leroy, the study author, said “more research needs to be done to look at the relationship between sleep issues and cognitive decline and the role played by motoric cognitive risk syndrome”.

“We also need studies to explain the mechanisms that link these sleep disturbances to motoric cognitive risk syndrome and cognitive decline,” Leroy, who has an MD, and PhD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, added.