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  • Some are saying that sitting is the new smoking.

  • A little dramatic?

  • Yes. Kind of accurate?

  • Kind of yes.

  • Hey everyone, Laci Green here for DNews.

  • Is anyone else slightly terrified of losing independence when you get old?

  • It's sort of like an ongoing existential crisis that's destroying my youthful years.

  • 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?

  • Wrong! That's apparently still not good enough.

  • 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

  • while getting your 150 minutes a week of exercise is important for maintaining good health,

  • it might not provide the same kind of protection as, say... getting off your butt and not sitting so much.

  • The scientists found that sedentary hours were a better predictor than moderate exercise when it comes to things like

  • being able to get around the house, being able to feed yourself, staying out of nursing homes, and general independence when you're old.

  • For every hour of sitting, there was a 46% decrease in the ability to perform everyday tasks in those over 60.

  • Researchers also found that those most likely to be sitting too much were

  • older, male, more educated but less wealthy, smokers, and those who have chronic illnesses.

  • Their research attributes 5.3 million deaths per year, worldwide, to sitting.

  • Other studies have found that for every hour of TV watched when you're older than 25, 22 minutes are shaved off your lifespan.

  • YIKES! It's like a 21st century nightmare straight out of Wall-E.

  • Sitting is obviously a huge problem and it's not something that we talk or really think about so much,

  • at least not as much as diet and exercise.

  • 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.

  • But there is hope yet!

  • The researchers say that gradually moving toward standing more or getting more steps into your day can have a dramatic effect.

  • As little as an extra half hour per day of not sitting can improve your long-term health.

  • I've started to notice standing desks or treadmill desks getting more popular.

  • It seems like we're just gonna need to make some adaptation to stay healthy with this emerging 21st century lifestyle.

  • Now, the researchers are now looking into the question of ok so "just how much sitting is *too much*?"

  • So folks, how much do you sit every day?

  • Tell us the number down below and we'll see if we can get a little DNews average.

  • Thanks for joining me!

  • I'll see you next time.

Some are saying that sitting is the new smoking.

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