Thursday, January 26, 2012

Lifehacker on the dangers of sitting

I've had stuff here before on the health impact of spending too much time sitting down.  Lifehacker had a good piece on it today too:


Do you sit in an office chair or on your couch for more than six hours a day? Then here are some disturbing facts: Your risk of heart disease has increased by up to 64 percent. You're shaving off seven years of quality life. You're also more at risk for certain types of cancer. Simply put, sitting is killing you. That's the bad news. The good news: It's easy to counteract no matter how lazy you are.
Their prescription was:

Happily, you only need to do two things to counter the effects of sitting all day:

  • Remember to stand once an hour.
  • Get about 30 minutes of activity per day.
Whether you're a couch potato watching marathons of Firefly or an office worker sitting in front of a computer, an Australian study suggests short breaks from sitting once an hour can alleviate most of the problems described above

3 comments:

CarbSane said...

Firefly! Loved that :)

PBear said...

A great tool I have started to use at work is evo, which reminds you at any time you set to take a break. (http://www.protectyourvision.org/)

Couch Potato said...

Combine that with smoking and drinking and you're looking at a very short lifespan. At least that's what I see when I look in the mirror every morning...