July 10, 2012

Stand Up Now to Stick Around Later

Sitting for less than three hours a day could increase average life expectancy by two years. Katherine Harmon reports

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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.

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[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]

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