A cardiologists' group has cautioned that excessive sitting is bad for your heart even if you exercise on regular basis.

The American Heart Association (AHA) also said that a lot of people have been spending a huge part of their life sitting on chairs and sofas.

Deborah Rohm Young, chair of the AHA panel that penned down the new advisory, said “Based on existing evidence, we found that U.S. adults are sedentary for about six to eight hours a day. Adults 60 years and older spend between 8.5 to 9.6 hours a day in sedentary time”.The issues only become worse with as you grow.

According to a heart specialist, the latest stance is justified.Dr. Barbara George, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Lifestyle Medicine at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, NY, said that sitting would just lure cardiovascular disease, so participate in activities and sit less.

She mentioned that all studies have indicated that moving more across the day, besides getting the suggested half an hour moderate activity every day, is a must to decrease one’s risk of contracting heart disease and other death leading causes.

The AHA said that the latest statement has reflected the growing proof that just exercise isn't sufficient to counter the unhealthy effects of sitting.

Young explained that despite the physical activity you do daily, prolonged sedentary time can possibly have a negative impact on your heart health and blood vessels.

The AHA added that the impact of sitting is more than only heart disease risk. A sedentary lifestyle could also be linked to elevated chances of diabetes, impaired insulin sensitivity (associated with diabetes) and raised odds of death from any cause, as per the latest statement.

A report published in Forbes informed, "The American Heart Association (AHA) has just released a science advisory on the ills of sitting. The experts who wrote the review sifted through the available evidence on the risks that lack of activity confers on us. Americans, the team finds, sit for six to eight hours a day, on average, and sitting, as a number of studies have found, is linked to all kinds of problems, from diabetes to death."

But the larger problem is that exercise alone won’t save us–even people who work desk jobs but are quite active in their leisure time don’t have the same reduced risk of disease and death as people who simply sit less in the first place. Which makes it hard to determine effective exercise guidelines. But, as the team conclude, perhaps the more effective message at the moment would be to sit less, instead of just exercise more.

According to a report in Weather by Ada Carr, "While healthy lifestyle changes have started becoming more popular, researchers say that even people who exercise regularly could still be at an increased risk for heart disease and stroke. According to a science advisory from the American Heart Association (AHA), more evidence is mounting to suggest spending more time being sedentary is associated with all-cause and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in adults."

“Regardless of how much physical activity someone gets, prolonged sedentary time could negatively impact the health of your heart and blood vessels," study author and Kaiser Permanente behavioral research director Deborah Rohm Young said in a release. "There are many important factors we don't understand about sedentary time yet. The types of studies available identify trends but don't prove cause and effects.”