I don’t know if you got the memo, but according to a review recently published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, sitting all day long is killing is.
Yes, sitting. Sitting looks harmless, but sitting has been linked to diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and even cancer.
In this latest study, two researchers from the University of Regensburg in Germany studied how people sit and correlated it to cancer. Daniela Schmid and Michael F. Leitzmann analyzed 43 observational studies, (with answers from more than 4 million participants) and what they found is that sitting is associated with drastic increases in cancer risk:
- 24% increased risk of colon cancer
- 32% increased risk of endometrial cancer
- 21% increased risk of lung cancer
One might think – like I did – that simply exercising more will counteract the harmful effects of sitting.
That’s not true. You can’t beat away sitting’s harmful effects simply by going to the gym longer.
Schid and Leitzmann discovered that increasing physical activity (time spent at the gym, time spent doing yoga, etc.) does not reverse the effect of a sedentary lifestyle. According to the researchers, even participants who achieved the daily recommended levels of physical activity were at the same risk as those who spent their day sitting around with no exercise.
Additionally, too much sitting causes posture problems, increases risk for Deep Vein Thrombosis, and causes back pain. But no matter how bad it is for us, in today’s world we are all sitting almost all the time. (I was sitting when I started writing this article, but now I’m standing up.)
Luckily, what the researchers did find is short bursts of getting up out of your chair throughout the day are beneficial. That’s exactly what Darma – the innovative new cushion – wants to help you do.
The Darma Cushion was founded by Dr. Junhao Hu who has experienced back pain first hand. When he was an engineering student it became so bad it actually interfered with his productivity.
“Getting up and moving for 2 minutes every 20 minutes throughout your day is healthier than 32 straight minutes of exercise,” Dana Santas told The Now on ABC News Tampa Bay. Dana is a yoga teacher to professional athletes and one of the Advisory Board Members for Darma.
“Darma empowers people to understand what actions they need to take to adopt healthy sitting habits and feel better in their bodies,” said Dana.
Check out the following infographic for more information about the health problems caused by sitting, and see how you can get moving.
