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A new sitting study spells bad news for sitters in a sedentary society. The very act of sitting on your butt all day could trigger a host of degenerative diseases.
Novel research into the effects of sitting constantly throughout the day has revealed that it is very bad for your general health. People who don’t exercise and are couch potatoes have everything to fear from their habits since by sitting once too often they /4/become insulin resistant.
In fact, those who exercise for a half hour or even an hour per day and remain sedentary for the rest of the time are also prone to the cardiovascular diseases, cancers and diabetic maladies so common in today’s technological civilization.
It seems when you sit you set off a series of enzyme reactions that spell trouble. Big trouble! The real reason behind this is that for 99% of its existence on earth, the human body was built for movement.
Cavemen used to travel all day long in search of food and they ran to kill the gazelle or impala when the time for the hunt came along. They didn’t dream of sitting all day long doing nothing but passively reading books or watching television.
But unfortunately this has become the norm today. Everything in modern society is sitting-centric.
There are various means of counteracting this tendency towards sedentary behavior. One of the most obvious ones is to get up every half an hour and walk around and stretch for two to three minutes.
This time spent in activity will add up throughout the day and negate the “couch potato syndrome”. Such diseases of civilization as obesity, diabetes, cancer and stroke will be minimized thanks to these prophylactic measures.
There is a great deal of difference between sitting down and standing up. When you stand up, you automatically burn double the calories you were burning while you were seated.
It is a miracle of sorts since you activate the very hormonal reactions that are therapeutic and health-promoting by nature.
The healing effects of an active lifestyle are all too familiar to need any going into. And you don’t have to necessarily sweat like a pig in order to gain the benefits of exercise.
A brief walk in the open air or a few minutes of light jogging will be just as beneficial as some high intensity sprints where you will have to be pounding the pavement. It’s not a black-or-white deal. Even a little goes a long way.
Read the full sitting study article that spells the bad news for sitters in Annals of Internal Medicine.
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