We all know that having a sedentary lifestyle is bad for the body, but research conducted in the past year is starting to show how much. The surprise finding in these studies is that exercising regularly DOES NOT protect you from the ill effects of prolonged sitting. Among the results reported for prolonged sitting are the following:
- A statistically higher risk of 3 types of colon, endometrial, and lung cancers that increased for each 2-hour increase in sitting time.
- A 5-minute walk every hour reverses the damage to the endothelial pumping power of leg arteries, an early marker of cardiovascular disease, that is caused by 3 hours of prolonged sitting.
- If you’re 60 and older, every additional hour a day you spend sitting is linked to doubling the risk of being disabled.
The take home message is that is important to move around, even in small amounts, throughout the day, whether watching TV, working on the computer, talking on the phone, or writing. It may save your life.