Studies say too much sitting leads to early death

MANILA, Philippines - For most of us, our daily routine consists of having a considerable time sitting, which leads us into getting caught into a serious fitness and health trap. Recent studies show that sitting all day leads to an early death.

According to Selene Yeager of Bicycle magazine, "we now spend a full eight hours a day sitting, and that's not good.” It puts us in a state of ‘inactivity physiology,’ which leads to health and metabolic problems.

A research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine said that sitting all day may lead to having a serious heart disease. The more hours we spend sitting at work, driving, lying on the couch watching TV, or engaged in other leisurely pursuits, the greater their odds of dying early from all causes, including cancer.

To make it even more serious, Dr. Joann Manson, one of the authors said, “even if you are doing the recommended amount of moderate to vigorous exercise, you will still have a higher risk of mortality if you’re spending too many hours sitting.”

So even those who exercise daily is at risk if most of their hours are spent sitting. This just implies that an hour of vigorous exercise would not make up for the hours spent sitting.

James A. Levine, a doctor conducting a research in Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota learned that people with obesity who lived in the same environment as people who are lean sit 2 hours and 15 minutes more a day than lean people. 

Another study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that adults who sat for more than 11 hours a day had a 40 percent increased risk of dying within 3 years– from any cause– compared with those who sat for less than 4 hours a day. 

When you sit, you expend fewer calories than you would while standing. Extended sitting results to lack of muscle contractions and successive body movements. Muscle contraction is very important for blood flow stimulation and it removes toxins from the body via the lymphatic system, a complex filtering system in our bodies. It also clears fat and glucose from our bloodstream.

Avoiding inactivity is important for your health. Sitting is a part of our daily lives, but we could avoid too much of it by sitting less.

So  the next time you complain about standing up in the bus or MRT, hating over the fact that other people are sitting and you are not, you may want to consider that standing up may actually be healthier for you, and could potentially save you from having a short lifespan.