Don’t Just Sit There (NY Times)
While writing about the benefits of , my muscles slackened. Fat seeped insidiously into my blood, liver and ventricles.
To see the results of such inactivity, scientists with the National Cancer Institute spent eight years following almost 250,000 American adults. The participants answered detailed questions about how much time they spent commuting, watching TV, sitting before a computer and exercising, as well as about their general health. At the start of the study, none suffered from heart disease, or diabetes.
But after eight years, many were ill and quite a few had died. The sick and deceased were also in most cases sedentary. Those who watched TV for seven or more hours a day proved to have a much higher risk of premature death than those who sat in front of the television less often. (Television viewing is a widely used measure of sedentary time.)
Erik says: I've recently started using a standing desk addition for my laptop and hardly ever sit while working/email/etc. It helped me recover from a back injury in 3 weeks instead of 3 months. It's not easy, but my body feels better because of it.
