ONE THING YOU DO EVERYDAY THAT’S KILLING YOU

ONE THING YOU DO EVERYDAY THAT’S KILLING YOU

I frequently discuss in my book and social media posts the dangers that sitting places on your spine. Excessive sitting is a known cause of low back disorders, particularly disc herniations, and a number of other undesirable problems. Sitting begins to harm your back after about 45-50 minutes of staying in the sustained sedentary position. However, additional research finds that sitting is hurting much more than just your spine; it’s affecting your morbidity.

In one study that looked at 93,000 women’s sitting habits, it was reported that women who sat for a total of 11 hours a day had a 12% increase in an early death from cardiovasucular disease. Additionally, this same study reported that increased sitting may result in up to a 27% increase in an early cancer death (1).

A different study found that people with a forward, flexed posture—which occurs during sitting—are linked to a 1.4 times greater risk of death compared to people that do not have forward posture (2). Poor posture hurts your spine, your overall health, and makes you look bad. Straighten up, people!

1. https://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/thing-day-may-cut-life-short-194100937.html

2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/10721014/Texting-for-long-periods-could-lower-life-expectancy.html?placement=CB3