Sitting is the new smoking

The AARP Bulletin has a headline for this article that says "Sitting is the New Smoking".  It says that evidence is accumulating that sitting too much is bad for your health, even if you exercise regularly.  

It is difficult to avoid too much sitting.  We habitually sit to eat, to drive, to converse.  My dean noticed the problem years ago and stood at her computer.  My office is such that I can put my laptop on a bookshelf and my mouse and keyboard on inverted banker's boxes.  It works out quite nicely.  I have found that my painful back does not come to visit if I don't sit too much.  Too much for me = more than 20 or 25 minutes at a time.  Even when I read aloud, I set a timer to get up and move.  I don't do that for tv watching and I find myself sitting too long.  The nasty thing about is that I only find out that it was too long the next morning when I start to get out of bed.  

I suspect that long bouts of standing more or less still will prove to be less than helpful, too.  For some, a "treadmill desk" may be helpful.  See this web site: http://www.treadmill-desk.com/

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety