Sit fewer than 3 hours a day, add 2 years to your life, study says

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/09/12647448-sit-fewer-than-3-hours-a-day-add-2-years-to-your-life-study-says?lite

July 9, 2012

Americans might live a little longer if they cut back on the amount of time they spend sitting down, a new study says.

Reducing the daily average time that people spend sitting to less than three hours would increase the U.S. life expectancy by two years, the study found. And reducing the time spent watching TV to less than 2 hours daily would increase life expectancy by 1.4 years.

The study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that sitting itself is deadly. While previous studies have looked at the health risks to the individual, the new study examines the risk of sitting for the whole population, said study researcher Peter Katzmarzyk, of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.

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Other studies have found our culture of sitting may be responsible for about 173,000 cases of cancer each year.