How Many Hours a Day Do You Spend Sitting?
Sitting Disease. It sounds like some mysterious condition you’d bring back from an exotic vacation, but it’s actually a modern homegrown ailment caused by going from the breakfast table to the driver’s seat, from your desk to the car to the sofa for the evening, with little movement otherwise.
The staggering amount of time many of us spend being sedentary—up to 15 hours a day if we work in an office, according to one study—can lead to problems inside and out. You’re probably familiar with the aches and pains caused by hunching over a computer, but spending too much time in a chair or slumped on the sofa also has been linked to several life-threatening conditions, including blood clots, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, heart disease, and cancer. Not even your brain is spared: In April 2018, researchers at UCLA published a study that found an association between sedentary behavior and thinning of the regions of the brain that are associated with memory formation, meaning that your ability to remember could suffer.
Excerpted from Prevention
