Commerical Drive - East Vancouver Chiropractor; Dr. Dominic Chan DC - "Sitting Too Much May Be Killing You"

This is a very interesting study that came out this week from the University of Sydney in Australia. Now what I find very impressive about this study is the number of participants involved; according to the study, over 220,000 people over the age of 45! That is a staggering amount of people involved in this study using self-reported data.

The findings included a sharp increase in the risk of death after more than 11 hours of daily sitting was reported. These numbers were compared to the risk of death for people who sat for less than 4 hours/day and those who sat between 8-11 hours/day. The researchers found that those who sat more than 11 hours/day had a 15% increased chance of death in the following 3 years compared to those who sat between 8-11hours. However, the shocking result was that compared to those who sat for less than 4 hours/day, the increased chance of death shot up to 40% for the 11 plus hours group. 

 "The evidence on the detrimental health effects of prolonged sitting has been building over the last few years," said study author Hidde van der Ploeg, a senior research fellow at 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."

This study appeared in the March 26 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Some background would also be helpful in relation to this article. Of the over 220,000 Australian participants in this study, about 62% considered themselves to be overweight or obese. This number is very close to North Americans as well. As mentioned before, the participants were also over the age of 45. With the huge global concern regarding chronic illnesses that only increase with time, the age of the participants is also important. 

After reviewing this article, a word of caution is warranted here. As the authors also noted, this study does not provide a 'smoking gun', cause and effect relationship between increased sitting time and death. However, other factors may also come into play. For instance, perhaps people who sit for more than 11 hours/day are simply less active and have increased cardiovascular risk factors than those who sit for less than 4 hours/day. Perhaps it's the other 'factors' that are contributing to their increased mortality? 

But I think it's fair to say that sitting for more than 11 hours/day is clearly unhealthy for your health. I would even venture to say that it's common sense. Having  a sedentary lifestyle is harmful to your health. Period. Now if the myriad of health problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle weren't enough, isn't the increased chance of death enough to get you moving? Something to think about and take to heart. 

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