Don’t just sit there. It may be killing you.
Getting off the couch and moving more might lengthen your life, as well as decrease your risk of dementia, physical disabilities and other serious medical problems.
For several years, health experts have been sounding the alarm about the dangers of “sitting disease,” which is sitting too long or too much. The term captures how many people are glued to their seats for hours in front of the TV, in cars and at the office.
Sitting disease has been linked to increased risks of Type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline, disability in people over 60, and death from cancer, heart disease and stroke. One study showed that sitting less may lead to a longer life.
A recent analysis suggests “there are 34 chronic diseases and conditions associated with excess sitting,” says endocrinologist James Levine, 50, co-director of Obesity Solutions at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and Arizona State University. He has researched sitting disease for three decades and wrote a new book, Get Up! Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It. “We hope that getting up more reduces the risk of all of those things, but the prospective studies on several of those conditions have not been conducted.”
If you take a brisk walk, jog, swim or do other physical activities for at least 30 minutes daily, it’s great for your health, but not enough to offset being sedentary the rest of the day, he says. You still need to move for at least 10 minutes every hour, Levine says. This is especially true for retirees who want to “lead a zestful, purposeful existence after a life of hard work.”
Some good points but you are missing the most important thing which is to sit less. The easiest way to do this is by standing and working. My father who is a GP / Family Physician and also suffers from back pain built a product which sits on an existing desk or table turning it into a standing desk. If you are interested you can find out more here http://zestdesk.com/
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