Do you spend too many hours sitting leisurely making the best of your time? Or perhaps you’ve spent many decades sitting at work. Well, new research says that those who site for long hours raise their average risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and early death.
The research takes in findings from 47 different scientific studies and declares that even those who meet recommended daily levels of exercise are at risk if they sit for long period of time.
(It seems my long-held passion of sitting at the keyboard bringing you the news to talk about could be in fact risking my life 😉 You’re welcome!)
The research was published last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that the risks of health concerns are “more pronounced at lower levels of physical activity than at higher levels.”
Highlights of the study showed that people who undertake regular physical activity but spent a lot of their day sedentary could be 30% less likely to die than those who get little or no exercise and those that spend their days sitting and do a vigorous workout were 16% more likely to die than those who do not sit for long.
Each of the 47 studies that were drawn upon defined prolonged sitting differently, and therefore the results are interpretative. One study defined it as watching TV for 5 hours per day, which anyone who sits down at 6pm and watched TV til 11pm will be at risk of. Another study suggested it was more than 11 hours a day of sitting.
So what do we need to know from what this study is telling us:
One of the researchers from the paper, Dr. David Alter, senior scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute offered some ideas via the LA Times on how to limit sitting and its impact. His tips included the following: