The Thing You Do All Day, May Cut Your Life Short:

[Stuart G]

Yahoo Health:

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/thing-day-may-cut-life-short-194100937.html

Anyone with an office job can attest to that achy, crampy, stir-crazy feeling of being stuck sitting at your desk all day. What you may not know is that sitting all day can also be deadly, even if you work out regularly, according to the results of a forthcoming study conducted by Cornell University.

The study of 93,000 women found that those who are sedentary the longest during waking hours die earlier than those who are more active. In fact, women who logged 11 hours of sitting time had a 12 percent increase in premature mortality from causes such as cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and cancer by 13, 27, and 21 percent, respectively.

Sitting wreaks havoc on your health because, when your body stops moving, that causes a decline in metabolic activity and chips away muscle mass, increases insulin resistance (which can lead to diabetes), and, over time, can lead to obesity. Not to mention, it wrecks your posture.

(further down in article)....

The study also found that the effects of constant sitting weren't that different for super-active people. Even those who hit the gym for an hour (even two!) a day faced almost the same odds of premature death as those who didn't work out.

another article about this subject, from Men's Health: "The Most Dangerous Thing You'll Do All Day"

By Bill Phillips and the Editors of Men's Health
Mar 30, 2011
http://health.yahoo.net/experts/menshealth/most-dangerous-thing-youll-do-all-day

First study on exercise vs sitting:

http://www.epi.umn.edu/cvdepi/study.asp?id=13

1953...Known as the London "Busdrivers vs Ticket Taker" study..
Busdrivers sat, vs Ticketakers and money takers, walked up and down all day on the double decker busses. (up and down the stairs, back and forth) They compared the relative health and longevity ...I recall reading the following two ideas. First, The ticket takers had one half the cardio vascular disease as the bus drivers who sat all day. and... on average, the ticket takers lived 14 years longer .....................

oops...it is time to get up and walk around after sitting at the computer for over an hour.....

[bemildred]

1. I find this questionable, specifically that an hour a day in the gym has no effect.

The notion that you should get up and take a walk around every hour is good though, whenever you lose focus really, take a break.

[Stuart G]

2. Perhaps, but the idea of sitting long hours, without getting up often, is indeed dangerous.

It is possible, that the affects of sitting that long, counter act, the exercise..

[bemildred]

3. Right, even in the hospital, you have somebody to turn you over now and then.

The issue is duration without moving, but it could have been expressed more clearly if they were not framing it as a life-threatening issue.