Sitting too much raises death risk

People who spend a Lot of time sitting every day may be at a significant higher risk of death due to any cause compared with more physically active counterparts. A three-year follow up of 222,500 Australian adults revealed that people who on average spent sitting between 8 and 11 hours were 15 percent more likely to die compared to those sitting fewer than 4 hours per day. The risk of death also rose by 40 percent after 11 hours of total daily sitting compared, researchers wrote in Archives of Internal Medicine. “The evidence on the detrimental health effects of prolonged sitting has been building over the last few years,” said senior investigator Hidde van der Ploeg of the University of Sydney. “The study stands out because of its large number of participants and the fact that it was one of the first that was able to look at total sitting time. Most of the evidence to date had been on the health risks of prolonged television viewing.” The studied people on average spent 90 percent of their leisure time sitting and fewer than half meet World Health Organization recommendations for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, the authors discovered. Scientists suggest people especially those sitting for long hours at their jobs to make sure a greater portion of their leisure time is spent standing, walking or engaging in exercise and other forms of physical activity.