Your Long Commute May Mean Poor Health, Study Says
Your Long Commute May Mean Poor Health, a new study reveals.
What
would Steinbaum say to Atlanta commuters traveling over 15 miles to
work each day? Well, she calls a long commute "a perfect storm" when it
comes to acquiring future health issues.
The
study consisted of more than 4,200 adults who commuted to work in two
Texas cities. Each adult took a treadmill test that measured the length
of time they could vigorously exercise. Researches also checked various
indicators for heart disease and diabetes including blood sugar levels,
cholesterol, total fat, belly fat, BMI, etc. Participants were also
asked how often and intensely they exercised each week.
Researchers used satellite tracking to determine the shortest road routes between participants’ homes and offices.
“The
study is first to show that commutes can take a way from exercise and
are associated with higher weight, lower fitness levels and higher blood
pressure. And all of these are strong predictors of [heart] disease,
diabetes, and some cancers,” says researcher Christine M. Hoehner, PhD,
MSPH, an assistant professor of public health sciences at Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis, as first reported in the
AJC.
The
study can’t prove that long commutes cause these problems directly. In
fact, the correlation could be due to the fact that people with long
commutes are more likely to engage in other behaviors that put them at
risk for weight gain and low levels of physical activity.
In
the end, Steinbaum acknowledges that a commute is something many of us
cannot avoid. “What I say to people is: ‘You cannot control certain
things. You have a job. We all have to commute. This is life. Let’s not
get down on life. But what you do on the outside time, what you do for
yourself, is so critical,” Steinbaum tells WebMD.
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