Another encouragement to be active
There’s interesting health news out of Australia. Researchers there have found that too much sitting shortens lives. As reported by the New York Times today, they found that “each daily hour of television viewing was associated with an 18 percent increase in deaths from heart disease and an 11 percent increase in overall mortality.”
Here’s a link to the story I read on the New York Times web site:
When I read the piece, my first reaction was to think “it’s the television that’s shortening lives, not sitting!” I mean, what about other sedentary activities like reading or sitting in front of a computer for hours composing posts for a blog that nobody reads?
Well, I tracked down the full text of the paper which describes the study results. It’s available from the American Heart Association. In the concluding paragraph, it reads:
… our findings suggest that reducing time spent watching television (and possibly other prolonged sedentary behaviors) may also be of benefit in preventing CVD [Cardiovascular Disease] and premature death.
They don’t say conclusively that other sedentary activities have the same risks, but really, it makes sense that they would. Sitting is sitting, right? Or does posture and brain activity and the kind of chair you’re plopped into make a difference?
Here’s a link to the full article (note: it’s a PDF file so you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader):
Television Viewing Time and Mortality. The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study
I hope the link works for you. If not, the first link above includes a link to the abstract of the article. From there, you can click on the link on the right side to download the PDF of the “Full Text.”
After that, get up out of your chair!
