Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?
April 16th, 2011Via: New York Times Magazine:
Sitting, it would seem, is an independent pathology. Being sedentary for nine hours a day at the office is bad for your health whether you go home and watch television afterward or hit the gym. It is bad whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin. “Excessive sitting,” Dr. Levine says, “is a lethal activity.”
Posted in Health | Top Of Page
The really interesting part of this to me is the thought that being sedentary is affecting more than just calorie consumption. Anecdotally, it’s easy for me to accept that fidgeting is a major factor in weight management. I have examples of both (skinny, high calorie consumption, continuous fidgeting vs stocky, low calorie consumption, placid) in my own family. But the idea that movement is part of the stimulus that drives insulin effectiveness and cholesterol management is very telling, especially in light of our modern western epidemic of diabetes.
I already can’t stand sitting around as much as I do in my IT-land job. Maybe it’s my body trying to tell me to stop killing it so rapidly.
Zeke
[Butthead] Are you guys gonna like, “Slam,” or like
“Get out your seat and Jump Around, a-Jump Around!”
[Beavis] Yeah yeah, heh yeah like,
like, “Slam! SLAM! Duh-DUH-DUH, DUH-DUH-DUH, DUH-DUH-DUH!”