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Which Is Best — More Exercise or Less Sitting?
Research provides targets you should aim for
What is one of the worst things you can do for your health? As a physical therapist, I see and hear about many health-related habits, both good and bad. Some are easy to categorize and cause little debate.
Exercise? Good
Smoking? Awful
Sitting? Terrible? This one creates a lot of discussion and, unfortunately, a lot of misinformation.
You might have heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking,” and I’m here to tell you it’s nonsense and unsupported in research.
We know through mounds of research that smoking is one of the worst habits you can adopt for your health. The US Department of Health and Human Services reports smoking increases coronary heart disease risk by 2 to 4 times, stroke by 2 to 4 times, and lung cancer 25 times. Those are terrifying numbers.
Sitting does not carry those risks.
Yes, being sedentary can be harmful, but the numbers pale in comparison to smoking. A study in JAMA found overall mortality risk to be 2.8 times higher for smokers compared to non-smokers. Conversely, a new study in the British Medical Journal showed that for people who are sedentary over 12 hours per day and complete fewer…
