Our Sedentary Lifestyles Cost About 5 Million Lives A Year

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - A study of one million people has found that physical inactivity costs the global economy $67.5 billion a year in healthcare and productivity losses, but an hour a day of exercise could eliminate most of that. Sedentary lifestyles are linked to increased risks of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, researchers found, but activity - such as brisk walking - could counter the higher likelihood of early death linked with sitting for eight or more hours a day. Such inactivity is estimated to cause more than 5 million deaths a year - almost as many as smoking, which the World Health Organization (WHO) says kills 6 million a year. Giving details of their findings at a briefing in London, the international team of researchers warned there has been too little progress in tackling a “pandemic of physical inactivity”. Ulf Ekelund, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences and Cambridge University, said that WHO recommendations for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week was probably not enough. A quarter of adults worldwide do not meet even the WHO’s recommendations. “You don’t need to do sport or go to the gym ... but you do need to do at least one hour a day,” he said, giving walking at 5.6 km an hour (km/h) or cycling at 16 km/h as examples of what was needed. People who sat for eight hours a day but were otherwise active had a lower risk of premature death than people who spent fewer ho...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news