New research suggests that cutting daily sitting time to less than three hours might extend your life by two years. "Humans were designed to move. But modern lifestyles and office jobs rarely encourage us to walk around," says Peter Katzmarzyk, an expert at the University of Louisiana. "Sitting is common in our lives today. We sit while we're driving, eating and watching TV. And many of us sit for many hours at work." Katzmarzyk said. "We can't throw away physical activity. It's extremely important. We have 60 years of researchers showing us that." Katzmarzyk said. Katzmarzyk and other researchers are trying to discover how sitting all day affext our lifespans . "This is a relatively new area of study...Studies that have assessed the relationship between sitting and death or television viewing and death have been very rare in the last four or five years," said Katzmarzyk. Katzmarzyk and his colleagues analyzed data from these studies, which involved almost 167,000 adults. Then they turned to a government-run survey of Americans to find out exactly how much time people spend sitting and watching. Not only did the team find that U.S. citizens could live longer by sitting less, they found that cutting TV time to less than two hours a day could add an extra 1.4 years to their lives. People who've spent half their waking lives sitting down might well ask, "Is it ever too late to make a change?" "We would say 'No. It's never too late.' Physical activity is good for you at every age." Katzmarzyk said. Katzmarzyk says studying this problem has inspired his team to make a few changes in their own lives. They recommend a few simple changes: frequently getting up from your desk, taking walks at lunch time, and instead of e-mailing colleagues, walking over to their offices and talking face-to-face----all activities that can be enjoyable as well as life-extending. Why did Katzmarzyk and his colleagues turn to a government-run survey?
To collect information for the government To know how long people sit and watch TV To find what citizens do in their spare time' To discover how sitting for long affects their lives