Occupational sitting Back in the 1950s, British researchers found that workers who spent a lot of time sitting (London bus drivers and mail sorters) had higher rates of cardiovascular disease compared to workers who stood and walked (bus ticket collectors and postal workers). In 2010, researchers conducted a systematic review of 43 studies that investigated…
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The Perils of Passive Sitting
How much do Americans sit? We Americans sit a lot. A new study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 2001 – 2016 to find out just how much. Not counting sitting while at work, in 2001 the average American adult spent 5.5 hours per day watching TV or videos or…
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Just a Little Daily Movement Helps
Interrupt prolonged sitting with standing Stand more, live longer Abundant evidence shows that prolonged, uninterrupted sitting predicts poor health outcomes. Standing might improve health compared to sitting. Data from 16,586 participants with an average age of 42 years at baseline in the 1981 Canadian Fitness Survey offered an opportunity to test this idea. Participants were…
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If You Sit a Lot, Read this
The risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality increased even more as the amount of TV viewing increased. The risk of developing type 2 diabetes increased linearly as either total sedentary behavior or amount of TV viewing increased. For all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, risk increased above a threshold of 6-8 hours per day of total sitting and 3-4 hours per day of TV viewing, respectively. Do yourself a favor and trade one hour of TV viewing or other sitting time for one hour of moderate-intensity exercise each day.
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