Less Sitting, More Moving for Living Longer and Healthier

To reduce risk of early death, sitting must be replaced with exercise, as plenty of “sitting is the new smoking” research has found. Study says A quarter of Americans sit for more than eight hours a day even though this lifestyle can be deadly.
Replacing 30 minutes per day of sedentary time with 30 minutes of physical activity at a light intensity was associated with a 17% lower risk of early death in a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology on Monday.
The study also found that replacing 30 minutes of sedentary time with 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise was associated with a 35% lower risk of early death.
“If you replace 30 minutes of sitting time with 30 minutes of light-intensity physical activity so something just like a casual stroll down the hall that still can lower your risk,” said Keith Diaz, a certified exercise physiologist and assistant professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, who was first author of the study.
“Obviously, it doesn’t lower your risk as much as exercise, or as much as moderate to vigorous physical activity, but it still can lower risk, and to us, that was somewhat of a new finding,” he said.
The new study had some limitations, including that the researchers found only an association between physical activity and a lower risk of early death, and the finding was based on simulations.
Overall, Diaz said, he hopes the findings help encourage people to become more active in their daily lives. “You don’t have to take 10 minutes’ break and go run up and down the stairs,” Diaz said.
“If you take a 1-minute movement break and instead of going to the bathroom closest to your desk, you go to the bathroom furthest from your desk, maybe that’s enough to help you accrue this healthful activity,” he said. “Or, if you have a meeting, walk and talk.”
Gwendolyn Thomas, an exercise physiologist and director of the Exercise Prescription Lab at Syracuse University in New York, called the new study “exciting.”
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that the average adult get 150 minutes of aerobic exercise a week, she said, which can seem daunting for some.
>Juthy Saha