Friday, January 21, 2011

The danger of sedentary entertainment

A stunning piece of research
During the study’s follow-up period, from 2003 to 2007, 325 men died of various causes, and 215 suffered a heart attack or other cardiac event. Even after adjusting for differences in weight, smoking, occupational physical activity and risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure and other longstanding illnesses, as well as marital status and social class, those who spent four hours or more of their leisure time in front of a screen each day were 50 percent more likely to have died. Those who spent two hours a day in front of a screen for entertainment were 2.2 times more likely to have had a cardiovascular event.
and remarkably in a similar study linked above:
[...] light activities adults filled their time with, like reading and playing board games, actually burned more calories than watching TV.
So turn off the TV, and stand at your desk to work...  You'll burn more calories and live longer and you don't have to do anything else differently.  Amazing.

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