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Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

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Re: Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

#31

Post by maxxxxx »

jsz0 wrote: post #18
lpolovets wrote: post #5

I am not going to disagree with the article or dispute that sitting all day is not as healthy as occasionally moving around, but does anyone else feel like this is the latest "health scare" meme? It reminds me of how leg embolisms on long flights were the focus of attention a few years ago. (i.e. completely absent from the news at first, then an overabundance of stories once a single scientific study is published.)

It sure seems that way. Sitting isn't a new fad. People have been doing it for many years. Even if you want to look at the last few decades as increasing our sit time dramatically it still doesn't jive with reality. Death from heart disease and stroke care actually down in the US sharply in the last decade.

I think sitting pretty much the whole day is a very new thing. I don't think many people did that before computers.

Re: Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

#32

Post by ellyagg »

SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #28
lpolovets wrote: post #5

I am not going to disagree with the article or dispute that sitting all day is not as healthy as occasionally moving around, but does anyone else feel like this is the latest "health scare" meme? It reminds me of how leg embolisms on long flights were the focus of attention a few years ago. (i.e. completely absent from the news at first, then an overabundance of stories once a single scientific study is published.)

I see "health scare meme" as a potentially dangerous meme in and of itself. YES, the media can exaggerate the result of a single study and people will overreact to it (see: "margarine is healthier than butter," then more recently the reverse). In this particular study, the results may not be conclusive enough to act on; that aside, there ARE other health studies that have been successfully repeated (for example, the…

No way. Health scare memes are absolutely dangerous and almost certainly the reason for the most pernicious and widespread health problems in the US.

The media always need a new villain. If it were settled that an obvious component of our diet were the culprit for most of our problems, much of the drama and conflict would be drained from one of their favorite story lines.

Your example of trans fats is a good one. Trans fats are bad relative to other fats, but nowhere near as sickening as sugar and corn syrup. Unfortunately, reporting on the evils of trans fats is in its shiny glamorous stage, so we are bombarded with stories about it, which creates a skewed perspective on what matters to our dietary health.

Today's health crises, which exploded around 1980, can be traced back to the media trumpeting the twin (false) claims that dietary fat is evil and that corn syrup is a healthful alternative to sugar. Given the power of the media, this predictably resulted in an explosion of corn syrup uptake and consequently an explosion in obesity, diabetes, and probably cancer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.htm...

Re: Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

#33

Post by postfuturist »

This sort of 'science writing' is infuriating:

"Specifically, he found that men who reported more than 23 hours a week of sedentary activity had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who reported less than 11 hours a week of sedentary activity. And many of these men routinely exercised."

Well, is he controlling for those who exercise or not? If not, then what is the point?

Re: Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

#34

Post by esoteriq »

maxxxxx wrote: post #31
jsz0 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sure seems that way. Sitting isn't a new fad. People have been doing it for many years. Even if you want to look at the last few decades as increasing our sit time dramatically it still doesn't jive with reality. Death from heart disease and stroke care actually down in the US sharply in the last decade.

I think sitting pretty much the whole day is a very new thing. I don't think many people did that before computers.

Also, we sit in many more contexts: driving, work, watching TV, eating dinner, etc.

That being said, I'm a bit overwhelmed nowadays with all of the health scares. Sometimtes I feel like whatever I do, I'm killing myself. So I just give up and live my life. I'm going to die one way or another, right? (Not exactly good philosophy.)

Re: Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

#35

Post by jaysonelliot »

I'm lucky, I have a shelf in my office that happens to be perfect standing height for me. I decided to put my laptop on the shelf when I came in this morning, and give it a try.

My office: http://yfrog.com/h7m5ajhyj

So far today, I've gotten far more done than a normal Monday morning, and my energy level is way up.

This could be good.

Re: Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

#36

Post by Isamu »

DanielStraight wrote: post #16

I'm only one data point, but I felt significantly better in two or three days after hacking together a sit/stand desk. I can point to specific aches, pains and other minor medical issues that I simply no longer have now that I divide my time between sitting and standing.

It took me more like a month to get used to it after I set up my standing desk.

I feel like my posture is better and my back is stronger.

Re: Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

#37

Post by nostromo »

postfuturist wrote: post #33

This sort of 'science writing' is infuriating: "Specifically, he found that men who reported more than 23 hours a week of sedentary activity had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who reported less than 11 hours a week of sedentary activity. And many of these men routinely exercised." Well, is he controlling for those who exercise or not? If not, then what is the point?

Well, at least NPR links to the studies they are citing -- so if you really want to dig in to the details, they are right there for you.

Re: Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

#38

Post by minsight »

proponentia wrote: post #22

Explanationless science always gets into difficulties. That said, I suspect that watching TV all day everyday would kill a person, eventually, because thinking without a break depletes the CNS of resources which would otherwise be used to regulate the body. (Note: TV watching is a kind of externally driven thinking. More draining than thinking about the show would be the guilt thoughts caused by watching TV all day g…

"For instance, you won't get a heart attack if you are a Buddhist Monk sitting in meditation."

There's a claim that I won't buy without some sort of a citation.

Re: Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

#39

Post by bsgreenb »

postfuturist wrote: post #33

This sort of 'science writing' is infuriating: "Specifically, he found that men who reported more than 23 hours a week of sedentary activity had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who reported less than 11 hours a week of sedentary activity. And many of these men routinely exercised." Well, is he controlling for those who exercise or not? If not, then what is the point?

Even controlling for exercize wouldn't save this study.. Genetic and environmental factors will correlate with a sit-down lifestyle, confounding any possible conclusions.

You could rule out genetic and family environment factors by comparing identical twins who have different sitting habits. My bet is that a big chunk, if not all, of the effect here could be explained by that. For the remaining "effect", you'd still have the issue of non-family environmental collinearity, though.

Maybe you could find a job where people were randomly assigned to sitting vs. standing tasks. That'd be a nifty little natural experiment

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