How Much Sitting Is Too Much Sitting? The Difference Between Too Much Sitting and Too Little Exercise

Google entries for the search terms "sitting health" outstrip hits for Angelina Jolie, Hilary Clinton, Brad Pitt and climate change. How does something as unsexy as sitting, the absence of activity, get celebrity status? Sitting has elbowed its way past all other bad behaviors and become public enemy number one. And it should be. Sedentary (from the Latin sedere, sitting) behavior is now a leading cause of illness. But is this new? Did I miss a meeting? Haven't we been sitting since the dawn of time? Over the past decade we have gained a greater understanding of inactivity and its negative consequences. The game-changing new story concerns a novel scientifically-based therapeutic intervention: sit less. This may seem obvious but it is a new approach. Over the past half century our sedentary time has increased dramatically. Decreased walking and manual labor in conjunction with increased desk-based work and sedentary leisure pursuits (television/computer) have transformed our lifestyle. The proportion of Americans who reported no leisure-time physical activity increased from 19.1 percent to 51.7 percent in women and from 11.4 percent to 43.5 percent in men between 1988 and 2010. Here are the key findings that change everything. Most of the reduction in activity has been from the replacement of light physical activity with sedentary behavior, not from decreased moderate to vigorous activity. Until recently, the sole focus of health campaigns has been on increas...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news