roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/is-all-that-si...

Humans are designed for movement. Most of our evolutionary history has been characterized by a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, one in which we have had to seek out our food from the environment. Studies indicate that this type of lifestyle involves various levels of physical activity throughout the day.

This is in direct contrast to the “modern” lifestyle that many of us find ourselves immersed in, where technological advances have engineered the need for movement almost entirely from our lives. A major part of our modern lifestyle involves sitting.

We sit when we are in school, at work, commuting in a car, eating a meal, reading a book and watching television. Recent studies have highlighted the health concerns associated with excessive sitting. Of particular note is the link between sitting and premature mortality: individuals who sit most of the day have a greater chance of dying early compared with people who sit very little.

Thus, there is something about sitting that puts us at risk of bad things happening. Since scientific evidence is just now emerging about the ill health effects of sitting, it will also likely take several years before we are able to say just how much sitting is bad, and why. All we know right now is that the more sitting we engage in, the worse off we are. The take-home message should be that the more time we spend out of the chair, the healthier we are likely to be.

~ Peter T. Katzmarzyk (NY Times)