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This might not come as a surprise to many, but apparently sitting on your arse all day is seriously boosting your chances of kicking the bucket early. It’s not just because it’s making you fat either; sitting and not moving all day also screws up the normal operation of your body according to researchers, but tea might be the answer.
A new study of over 220,000 people aged 45 a more over four years showed that if you sit for around 11 hours a day your chance of dying in the next three years is increased by a whole 40 per cent. In fact, for those 9-to-5 desk-jockeys among us, sitting for just eight hours a day bumped your early-death risk up by 15 per cent.
Now, these results revolve around those over 45, but there’s no reason yet to think that it won’t affect those under 45 years of age too – so you might want to rethink your working day. In fact the researchers found that just getting up and walking about a bit more during your day will be enough to reduce your risk of an early death.
Perhaps it’s time we all sank back into the British stereotype by making frequent trips to the kitchen for a spot of tea – it could help save your life, as well as kit you out with a refreshing brew. [Archives of Internal Medicine via The Register]
Image credit: Sitting from Shutterstock
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Sam, you may have noticed that the source material was a study of Australian Adults, maybe you should advise Kat that she needs to go to the Kitchen and make herself (and you) a cuppa more often, for her own good.
Wow. Tea is saving my life in three ways now. Fisrt there is the obvious keeping me awake at work through caffeine or the need for post-consumption evacuation.
Then there was this –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10350373
And now you’re telling me it brings a third goodness. Surely it is the most altruistic of all beverages!
Not to be pedantic (especially with my first ever comment) but 15% of what?
15 percentage points – so my chance of dying has increased from 10% to 25%? or 15% of my chance – so 10% to 11.5%?
One is going to be a lot worse than the other!
The joys of misleading statistics!
About 30% of statistics are misleading, the other 80% are completely made up
Maybe time to stop the pedantry and jokes, and get jogging. I read the original results. It is percentage points!
I think he’s talking about absolute risk versus relative risk. With such high percentages it is obviously absolute risk otherwise office workers would be falling like flies every day.
Another option is *not* sitting upon one’s arse all day.
Standing desks are as good as they say (after the first couple of weeks, when your feet hurt) — fantastic for your posture, burns more calories and no post-lunch slump!
Another option is *not* sitting upon one’s arse all day.
Standing desks are as good as they say (after the first couple of weeks, when your feet hurt) — fantastic for your posture, burns more calories and no post-lunch slump!
By the same logic, we could claim that cigarettes might save your life.