Research
Hormonal
Physical inactivity leads to visceral fat accumulation and chronic systemic inflammation, which promotes insulin resistance, atherosclerosis, neurodegeneration, and tumor growth, constituting a 'diseasome of physical inactivity'.
Sitting too much causes your belly fat to become inflamed, which damages your blood vessels, brain, and metabolism, even if you are not overweight. To prevent this 'diseasome' of diseases, you must move regularly to keep inflammatory pathways in check, regardless of your current weight.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
physical inactivity leads to the accumulation of visceral fat and consequently the activation of a network of inflammatory pathways, which promote the development of insulin resistance, atherosclerosis, neurodegeneration and tumour growth, and thereby the development of the diseases belonging to the diseasome of physical inactivity.
Why this rating
Supported by epidemiological data, human studies on step reduction, and mechanistic reviews.
Source
Muscles and their myokines
Bente Klarlund Pedersen · Journal of Experimental Biology · 2010
DOI 10.1242/jeb.048074
narrative_reviewCited 666×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Skeletal muscle acts as an endocrine organ that releases myokines (such as IL-6) during contraction, which exert hormone-like effects on other organs to protect against chronic diseases associated with physical inactivity.Good
- Exercise-induced IL-6 acts as an anti-inflammatory and metabolic regulator in muscle, activating AMPK to increase glucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation, distinct from the pro-inflammatory role of IL-6 in immune cells.Good
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