Sit, stay, play dead: Too much sitting can kill you

Health News

You may be almost literally sitting on a time bomb right now. Spending too much time on your a** puts you at a higher risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and early death, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday. And the worst part is that daily exercise – at least the minimum recommended levels – will do little do offset a mostly sedentary lifestyle. “Even if you do a half an hour or an hour or of exercise every day doesn’t give us the reassurance that sitting for the other 23 hours is ok. In fact, it’s not,” study co-author Dr. David Alter of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute said.

The researchers examined 47 previous studies and discovered that that sitting down for 8-9 hours increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by 14%, cancer by 13%, and diabetes by 91%. People who additionally didn’t exercise regularly were 40% more at risk of early death. “We know that when you sit, you increase your insulin resistance,” Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Michael Roizen told CBS News. “What that means is you don’t take the sugar that’s in your blood and move it into your cells as well.” The question is, though, how much sitting is too much?

The different studies that were analyzed were not consistent in their definitions of prolonged sitting and of physical activity. At least one study included people who sat as little as an hour a day, while the rest ranged from 5-6 hours, to more than 6 to, more than 11. Similarly, level of physical activity varied from 20 minutes of moderately vigorous exercise a day to 7 hours a week. The fact remains though that the health risks of prolonged sitting increase the more time you spent sitting regardless of other factors that are detrimental to health and which are also associated with a sedentary lifestyle, like smoking, age, and obesity.

“Sedentary behavior is ubiquitous,” the authors of the study wrote in an accompanying editorial. “Society is engineered, physically and socially, to be sitting-centric.” Previous research claims that an average person spends more than half the time they are awake sitting in front of a computer at work, in front of a TV at home, or in front of the wheel of a car. Alter recommends taking 1-3 minute breaks at work every 30 minutes to stand from the desk and move around, standing or exercising during commercials when watching TV, keeping track of how long you spend sitting and then reducing that time realistically – starting with 15-20 minutes and work your way to 2-3 fewer sedentary hours each day –, and exercising regular independently of how sedentary the rest of your time is. There is also something to be said for standing desks; Victor Hugo reportedly wrote standing up, and not only did he come up with a masterpiece or two but he lived to the ripe old age of 83.

Related Read:

Even for the active, a long sit shortens lie and erodes health.

Too much sitting raises risk of death, even if you exercise.

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