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Here's news you don't want to hear sitting down. Okay, are you standing up? Cutting down on the amount of time spent sitting might add years to average life expectancy. So says a report in the journal BMJ Open. [Peter Katzmarzyk and I-Min Lee, "Sedentary Behavior and Life Expectancy in the USA: A cause-deleted life table analysis"]
Office jobs, long commutes, catching up on TV shows—so many aspects of modern life conspire to make us sedentary. But this comfortable lifestyle takes a toll on our collective health. Obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome are surging. Even people, your humble host included, who exercise regularly spend much of the workday planted in a chair in front of the computer. And various studies suggest that these long stretches of being sedentary have deleterious effects on our health, even if we're physically active at other times.
The new report reviewed the scientific literature and found that if people could (somehow) manage to sit for a total of just three hours a day or less, it could add two years to the average U.S. life span. Info worthy of a standing ovation.
—Katherine Harmon
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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7 Comments
Add Commentwhat does it mean by "collective health" & "humble host"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiscould someone explain these two to me? thanks~
"Collective health" refers to our health as a population within the United States. Sedentary lifestyle affects everyone's health.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith "humble host" the author is referring to herself. She also spends a great deal of time sitting in front of a computer leading to a large sedentary period which the article suggests decreases lifespan by two years.
While you can't really prove a negative, doesn't keep so called smart people from doing so. Is a "negative behavior" bad or is a lack of so called positive behavior the culprit?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe health experts (whoever they are) have said that exercise lessens disease risk. So if I exercise 30-60 minutes 7 days a week @ 80% MHR, but I still sit and watch TV over 3 hours per day, does that balance out? OR does this study just state what we know, people who sit and watch TV a lot are lazy and don't engage in healthy activities? Actually the study suggests the exercise part results in only 0.9 years of increased life or 16 minutes per day (or the amount of time you spend exercising).
I guess this means exercise plus sitting means you only die 1.1 years earlier.
Also, this was a self reported study, likely with understated times and not (apparently) controlled with diet, smoking, etc.
Is smokers are high in the sample, and they tend to sit when they smoke, is it the sitting or the smoking which causes the problems.
Someone will now suggest standing to eat (actually "Wired" magazine has already stated this for doing your job).
Here is the real paradox, assume people live to 80, an extra 2 years of life is 2.5%, multiply by 24 hours per day and that 2 years represents an extra 36 minutes per day more TV you could watch apparently as long as you watch standing up.
And BTW, this is a population study, has nothing to do with your life.
Hemingway stood while he wrote. But he killed himself. Guess that doesn't count.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisoops
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi,thanks for ur reply.It's really helpful
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbut I still don't understand what does the term "collective" means here,I was thinking maybe like "whole, all" but not so sure about it.
Kainonex,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou were accurate in assuming that collective refers to "whole, all". The author is indicating that our collective health, the health of us all, is negatively impacted by a sedentary life style.