Too much chair time can be deadly
3/27/2012
When I saw the headline that too much sitting is bad for you, I had my usual snarky "someone got PAID to study this?" reaction.
But the stats are actually shocking.
Research out of Australia shows that the risk of death from any cause was 15 percent higher for people who sat for eight hours a day. And it was 40 percent higher for people who's butt stayed int he chair for 11 or more hours a day.
40 percent!
Think about it: Your standard office job involves a whole bunch of sitting. Then you get home and watch a few hours of TV, read a book, or just relax…. that's 11 hours right there.
What's more, the risk increased no mater how healthy you were in your non-sitting time. If you exercise for the recommended 30 minutes a day, but sit for 10 hours, you basically cancel that exercise out.
This is based on a study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine. The researchers form the University of Sydney studied 220,000 people age 45 and older.
But it's more fuel to get moving -- even if you're not breaking a sweat. Just getting up out of the chair in any capacity will improve your health.