Science Throws Ice Water On The Theory That Sitting All Day Leads To Early Death. So Go Make Love To Your Couch

Fuck baseball. Fear mongering is America’s favorite pastime. You ever watch your local news at night? It’s horrifying. There is nothing this country loves to put a charge of anxiety into everyone’s day.

One of the most recent trends in America of “DON’T DO THAT OR YOU WILL DIE” has to do with most of our society working from a sitting position all day and then going home and sitting on our asses all night. It’s certainly not a healthy lifestyle, but recent reports have said that people with desk jobs are fucking doomed and will die early deaths from all the sitting we do.

That’s not exactly a warning you breeze over, because there’s no miracle drug with 40,000 side effects that are almost as bad as death to clear up your sitting problem. This isn’t Psoriatic Arthritis‎. Phil Mickelson and Enbrel aren’t going to save you. It’s on you to stand up more.

Because people don’t want to die early (go figure) standing desks have become all the rage. Everyone at our office has one, although like less than 15% of the office uses it on any given day. In the beginning we were all gung-ho about it. We were going to take the wheel and save our own lives. But we’ve all slowly stopped, because standing fucking sucks, what can I tell ya?

However, it turns out that maybe sitting isn’t going to put us in our grave. Maybe we can have our seats and sit in them too.

According to Daily Mail:

As part of the new study, more than 5,000 people were followed for 16 years.

They provided information on the total time they spent sitting, and specific types of sitting.

These included sitting at work; during leisure time; while watching TV; and sitting during leisure time but excluding watching TV.

They also gave details on how much time they spent walking and engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.

The researchers took into account factors including age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, general health, smoking, alcohol consumption and diet.

After 16 years, it was found sitting – in any setting – did not increase the risk of an early death.

As much as I want to rejoice and get all stiff in the pants over this, the Co-author of this study Dr Melvyn Hillsdon isn’t exactly giving lazy assholes a ringing endorsement either.

‘Our study overturns current thinking on the health risks of sitting and indicates that the problem lies in the absence of movement rather than the time spent sitting itself.

‘Any stationary posture where energy expenditure is low may be detrimental to health, be it sitting or standing.

‘The results cast doubt on the benefits of sit-stand work stations, which employers are increasingly providing to promote healthy working environments.’

Basically, you’re going to die whether you sit in place or you stand, so you might as well be comfortable. Or, if you really want to be a superstar and live a long life, you can get one of these. But who really wants to bother with all that?

[H/T Daily Mail]

J.Camm is the Managing Partner and Editor-in-Chief of BroBible.