Desk job? Short breaks can benefit your heart, waistline

Taking minute-long breaks from your desk can cut down chances of a heart attack. People who are up and about, adding up to more than two hours daily, tend to have smaller waists and lower blood pressure.

Researchers studied the habits of 4,757 adults over the course of a week, the European Heart Journal reports. Each participant wore an accelerometer, a small device fitted to the hip to measure how much time they spend walking and running.

Their waist size, blood ­pressure and the level of C-reactive protein in blood, which is often high in people at risk of heart disease, were also measured, according to the Daily Mail.

The researchers, from the University of Queensland in Australia, found that those who took the most breaks had waists up to four centimetre smaller than those who were more sedentary.

While at home it's easy enough to turn off the TV and get moving, but what about the desk-bound office worker? Dr. Genevieve Healy, a research fellow at The University of Queensland, Australia, who led the study, advises the following:

• Stand up to take phone calls
• Walk to see a colleague rather than phoning or emailing
• Have standing meetings or encourage regular breaks during meetings for people to stand up
• Go to a bathroom on a different level
• Centralize things such as garbage bins and printers so that you need to walk to them
• Take the stairs instead of the lift where possible