An hour a day, keeps the doctor away

Long periods of sitting a day has been linked to a higher risk for diseases like diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer. However, Norwegian scientists have recently stated that even an hour a day of physical activity, can compensate the harmful consequences of sitting for eight hours straight at your desk.

The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences has completed a meta-analysis which includes data from more than 1 million men and women. In their research they examined to what extent physical activity attenuates or even eliminates the detrimental effects of prolonged sitting. And the results were published in the scientific magazine The Lancet.

By comparing different groups of people, that combined the amount of sitting time with different levels of physical activity, the researchers were able to examine what the effects were on the participants’ health. The results of the study show that the participants of the research that sat at their desks for eight hours straight, but combined it with enough physical activity on a day, were much less at risk for getting sick or passing away at a younger age.

All in all, we have to realize that reflecting and maybe even adjusting our sitting behavior is a smart move when it comes to our health.

Read more about how EDLAB is fighting our daily sitting habits with the Education That Moves You project.

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