Science Reveals What Sitting All Day at Work Actually Does to Your Body

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Prolonged Sitting linked to Breast Cancer, Colon Cancer</span></b></span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The news is going viral.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong>But there's a problem:</strong> What many of the outlets did not report was that sitting for long periods did not explicitly <em>cause</em> cancer: It led to an increased <em>risk</em> of two specific types of the disease. These two types also happen to be linked to being overweight and obese, behaviors that are associated with sedentary behavior.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong>Here's what the researchers actually found:</strong> After reviewing 43 studies, the researchers, who published their study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, <a href="http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/106/7/dju206.full.pdf+html" style="text-decoration: none;">discovered</a> that people who sat for long periods of time had a higher chance of developing colon and endometrial cancer. The more time they spent on their butts, the more their risk increased.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In fact, for every additional two hours someone spent sitting, the researchers reported an 8% increase in their risk for developing colon cancer and a 10% increased risk for endometrial cancer.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong>So what is risk, anyway, and why does it matter?</strong> The 66% increase that <em>TIME</em> <a href="http://time.com/2884953/sitting-can-increase-your-risk-of-cancer-by-up-to-66/" style="text-decoration: none;">boasted</a> in its headline sounds huge.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What that figure doesn't include is the overall risk of developing the two types of cancer that the study found to be associated with more sitting time. For example, this table shows the percentage of American men who developed colon cancer over 10-, 20- and 30-year periods according to their age between 2008 and 2010.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="enlarge-image" src="http://media2.policymic.com/0c4e5c55c998dd77f32f429625d88ebf.jpg" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="700" /></span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Image Credit: <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/colorectal/statistics/age.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a></em></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you're a 30-year-old man, your risk of developing colon cancer by the time you turn 60 is just under 1%.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">According to the study, every two-hour increase in sitting time led to an 8% increase in the risk for developing colon cancer.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So, theoretically, if you're a man that spends eight hours sitting at the office each day and you were to start sitting for only six of them, you could decrease your colon cancer risk by about .08%.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As for the allegation that sitting causes breast cancer? That's a conclusion the researchers who did the study explicitly <a href="http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/106/7/dju206.full" style="text-decoration: none;">did not find</a>.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong>We know sitting is bad for us.</strong> Too much sedentary time can have dozens of unintended long-term consequences, from higher rates of chronic diseases, including <a href="http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/10/1/20?dom=PSC&loc=recent&lnk=1&con=february-2013" style="text-decoration: none;">heart disease</a> and <a href="http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/10/1/20?dom=PSC&loc=recent&lnk=1&con=february-2013" style="text-decoration: none;">diabetes</a>,<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22717340" style="text-decoration: none;"></a> to immediate effects such as strained and sore muscles.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bonnie Berkowitz and Patterson Clark made an awesome <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/the-health-hazards-of-sitting/750/" style="text-decoration: none;">infographic</a> of all the health problems someone can develop just by spending too much time in a chair.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img src="http://media2.policymic.com/8f81459f7b2ae34b52afe88e869c9247.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="915" /></span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Image Credit: <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/the-health-hazards-of-sitting/750/" style="text-decoration: none;">Washington Post</a></em></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong>Luckily, there are tons of ways to cut back on your chair time.</strong> At work, you can take breaks every couple of hours — walk down the block or around the office. And instead of hunching over your desk for lunch, step outside and get some air.</span></div> </div>

Science Reveals What Sitting All Day at Work Actually Does to Your Body

Prolonged Sitting linked to Breast Cancer, Colon Cancer The news is going viral. But there's a problem:  What many of the outlets ...

Read more »