Live Longer, Stand Up

Do you want to live a longer, healthier life. Maybe standing more is your answer.

It looks like the more you stand the less likely you are to die early. Or, to put it more correctly, the more you sit, the greater risk you have of an earlier death.

Decades ago, hardly anyone sat all day long. But now we sit to go to work, then sit at work all day long, then sit to get back home. And once we're home, we sit to watch TV.

Now it looks like all that sitting is taking it's toll.

The American Cancer Society studied over 50,000 men and women to find out how long they sat during the day and compared that to how long they lived. Researchers found the magic numbers were 3 and 6. If you spent more than 6 hours a day of your leisure time sitting, you significantly increased your chances of dying earlier than those sitting less than 3 hours.

The thinking is that sitting decreases your overall physical activity and can affect your metabolic function during the day----that can increase your chances of an early death. To make things even a little bit more concerning, this study only looked at hours sitting outside of work. So, adding hours at a desk might even make things a little worse.

So when you can, stand up, or better yet, walk around. That could make all the difference in the world.