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Some are saying that sitting is the new smoking.
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A little dramatic?
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Yes. Kind of accurate?
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Kind of yes.
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Hey everyone, Laci Green here for DNews.
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Is anyone else slightly terrified of losing independence when you get old?
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It's sort of like an ongoing existential crisis that's destroying my youthful years.
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Of course, declining health in old age is a good incentive to stay healthy, physically, and emotionally, which means eating right and getting moderate exercise in every week, right?
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Wrong! That's apparently still not good enough.
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At least according to a new study published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health, the researchers at Harvard, Northwestern, and the CDC found that
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while getting your 150 minutes a week of exercise is important for maintaining good health,
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it might not provide the same kind of protection as, say... getting off your butt and not sitting so much.
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The scientists found that sedentary hours were a better predictor than moderate exercise when it comes to things like
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being able to get around the house, being able to feed yourself, staying out of nursing homes, and general independence when you're old.
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For every hour of sitting, there was a 46% decrease in the ability to perform everyday tasks in those over 60.
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Researchers also found that those most likely to be sitting too much were
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older, male, more educated but less wealthy, smokers, and those who have chronic illnesses.
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Their research attributes 5.3 million deaths per year, worldwide, to sitting.
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Other studies have found that for every hour of TV watched when you're older than 25, 22 minutes are shaved off your lifespan.
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YIKES! It's like a 21st century nightmare straight out of Wall-E.
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Sitting is obviously a huge problem and it's not something that we talk or really think about so much,
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at least not as much as diet and exercise.
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It seems that as we shift away from manual labor types of jobs to computer-based desk jobs, sitting is becoming harder and harder to avoid.
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But there is hope yet!
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The researchers say that gradually moving toward standing more or getting more steps into your day can have a dramatic effect.
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As little as an extra half hour per day of not sitting can improve your long-term health.
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I've started to notice standing desks or treadmill desks getting more popular.
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It seems like we're just gonna need to make some adaptation to stay healthy with this emerging 21st century lifestyle.
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Now, the researchers are now looking into the question of ok so "just how much sitting is *too much*?"
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So folks, how much do you sit every day?
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Tell us the number down below and we'll see if we can get a little DNews average.
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Thanks for joining me!
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I'll see you next time.