Study: Sitting For Long Periods Worse For You Than Previously Thought

I'm mostly posting this for myself. I have the sort of job where one can become very sedentary indeed, if one lets himself. Which I have.

[S]cientists have determined that after an hour or more of sitting, the production of enzymes that burn fat in the body declines by as much as 90 percent. Extended sitting, they add, slows the body’s metabolism of glucose and lowers the levels of good (HDL) cholesterol in the blood. Those are risk factors toward developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

“The science is still evolving, but we believe that sitting is harmful in itself,” says Dr. Toni Yancey, a professor of health services at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Yet many of us still spend long hours each day sitting in front of a computer.

The good news is that when creative capitalism is working as it should, problems open the door to opportunity.

I quoted that last line because this is the New York Times -- note all the qualifiers around the idea of capitalism working. "When" it works -- implying it frequently does not -- "as it should" -- implying it frequently fails to work as it should.

But when capitalism works as it should, you then have an article which is chiefly written to put money in the writer's pocket, highlighting one of those Big New Trends, in this case, desks designed to be stood at, allowing a treadmill to be parked beneath them.

The New York Times-- capitalism deniers.

posted by Ace at 01:35 PM

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