Here’s another easy, no-sweat way to markedly improve your
health in the new year— stop sitting so much. You’ll live
longer. Mounting evidence suggests that sitting for long periods
increases the risk Sitting: Hazardous to Your Health of obesity,
diabetes, cancer and early death, even for people who exercise
daily. And yet Americans now sit more than they sleep, spending
an average of 10 hours a day in a car, at work and in front of a
television. Older adults are the worst offenders, according to
federal government statistics: Almost three-quarters are
sedentary, and more than four in 10 get no leisure-time physical
activity at all. To reduce your cancer risk, the American
Institute of Cancer Research is urging Americans to add mini-
breaks from sitting to a daily regimen of getting at least 30
minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous exercise. “If you reduce
sitting by five minutes an hour, at the end of a long day,
you’ve shaved an hour off your total sitting time,” says Alpa
Patel, M.D., senior epidemiologist