Americans Sitting More Than Ever, Risk Early Death
Americans Sitting More Than Ever, Risk Early Death
Despite all the warnings in recent years that sitting too much is ruining American’s health, most people are doing just as much sitting, or even more, than ever before. An investigative study published in April, 2019 in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that from 2001 to 2016 the amount of time that both adults and adolescents living in the U.S. spent sitting has remained “high and stable.”
The average American now spends at least 6 to 8 hours per day being sedentary, most of the time which is spent watching television or videos, and using the computer, both at work or school and during leisure-time.
Too much sitting doesn’t just put you at risk for problems like weight gain, bulging disc and tension headaches — it’s now considered to be as dangerous as smoking.
But guess what? You may be able to eliminate your increased risk of early death caused by too much sitting at work by exercising for one hour a day.
That’s the verdict a team of scientists came to after publishing a paper in 2016 reviewing 16 other studies looking at more than 1 million people’s sedentary behaviors and death risk. That news may come as a wave of relief, especially if you’re reading it, well, sitting behind a screen.
