Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Sit less, add 2 years to your life

Sit less, add 2 years to your life

Sit less, add 2 years to your life

 
LONDON: You may want to go for a walk after reading this: People who don't sit more than three hours a day are more likely to live an additional two years, a new study has claimed. Scientists from Louisiana University in the US found that those adults who are only seated for a maximum of three hours a day typically live an extra two years.

Watching television has a similar effect, according to the researchers' calculations. They found that those who limit their daily viewing to two hours live for nearly a year and a half longer, the Daily Mail reported . Experts have long blamed the growing sedentary lifestyles for rising levels of obesity and a lack of fitness in today's adults. This in turn is linked to heart problems, diabetes and many forms of cancer. The new findings, published in the journal BMJ Open, will no doubt cause concern amongst office workers who spend most of the day at their desks.

The new research reviewed past studies involving 167,000 adults aged 18 to 90. The researchers compared the subjects' life expectancy with how much time they had spent sitting down and watching television . They calculated that 27% of all deaths in America are partly caused by adults spending too much time sitting down. Similarly 19% of all deaths are in part due to watching too much TV. "The results of this study indicate that extended sitting time and TV viewing may have the potential to reduce life expectancy in the US," they concluded. But other experts said the study certainly did not prove sitting down for too long shortened your life expectancy.

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