He who sits the most, Dies the soonest!

A study of more than 200,000 Australians adds to the growing body of evidence that people who sit the most die the soonest.

According to ‘the Atlantic’, people who sat more than 11 hours per day had a 40% higher risk of dying in the next three years than people who sat less than four hours a day.  (This was after adjusting for factors such as age, weight, physical activity and general health status, all of which affect the death risk).

The results are part of the Sax Institute’s 45 and Up Study, the largest ongoing study of healthy aging in the Southern Hemisphere. It compared the self-reported daily sitting time of 222,497 Australian adults 45 years or older with their likelihood of death in the next three years.

An accompanying editorial suggests that the evidence is now strong enough that doctors should prescribe reduced sitting time to their patients. But there’s no reason that people can’t be proactive and write their own prescription here.

It’s been estimated that the average adult spends 90% of their leisure time sitting. So there’s plenty of room for improvement!!!