Long Hours Of Sitting Is The New Smoking

I've written about this topic in one of my previous posts but I've recently come across more information which I feel I should share with you.

Long hours of sitting is now being referred to as the "new smoking" in medical circles due to the same risks of obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and early death, associated with the latter.


Federal statistics reveal that more Americans spend more time sitting than sleeping - 10 hours a day in a car, at work, and in front of a television or computer. Older adults were found out to be the worst offenders as 75% have no leisure time activity at all.

And according to a recent American Cancer Society study, women who spent more than six hours of sitting daily outside of work had a 34% higher risk nof death than those who spent fewer than three hours.

In the results of another study, this time by the University of South Carolina, men were 64% more likely to die of heart disease if they  sat more than 23 hours a week in front of the TV, compared with those who sat 11 hours or less a week.

The results of both studies hold true even for those who exercise regularly, especially the "active couch potatoes," or those who exercise daily for certain periods of time but spend most of their waking hours sitting down. [Read: Daily Exercise No Match To Long Hours Of Sitting]

Modern technology plays a big role in this unhealthy phenomenon. You don't stand up anymore to change TV channels. You don't get out of your car anymore to open the garage. You down climb up the stairs in buildings anymore to go to higher floors. Modern technology has virtually taken out the physical aspects of doing things. And the price we have to pay is our compromised health and well-being.

The obvious remedy is to break up those long hours of sitting as often as possible. At home, what can we do? Take a walk in your yard or neighborhood every now and then. Eat over the kitchen counter standing up. Don't use a motor vehicle to navigate short distances. Just walk or use a bicycle.

In the workplace, avoid the elevators and escalators in going to upper floors. Use the stairs instead. It will be a good idea if the standard table is a standing desk. It keeps you standing and provides you with the opportunity to pace your working area while pondering over something. A good suggestion by one of the study authors is the use of a TrekDesk, a standing desk which can be equipped with a treadmill. According to her, she logs 35 miles a week at 1.4 miles per hour, while working....surfing the net, reading emails, and typing. By the way, the use of a standing desk is very much applicable at home.

I'm one of those directly hit by the information here because after an hour or so of exercise, the rest of my waking time is practically spent in front of my laptop. For a change, I am now doing my laptop work standing up. I'm lucky to have a computer table whose top counter is almost waist high, so I have no problem adjusting to the setup.

So, it's now the reverse for me. While before I would stand up to rest from what I'm doing, now I will sit for a while to have a little rest. I like it, because now, I automatically pace the room while thinking of my next input to my laptop.