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Why Your Chair Will Kill You

Written by Dr. Dave Hnida, CBS4 Medical EditorI'm sure you've heard it before -- sit for a long time over the course of the day and your risk of death shoots up -- even if you exercise regularly.

Great news, especially if you have a desk job.

Worse, the largest group of studies to date has actually put some time frames to how risky that chair is to your health. It ranks up there with obesity, and almost as much as smoking.

On the other hand, you can look at those time frames and see how you can reverse the damage.

For example, limiting your down time to less than 3 hours a day can add more than two years to your life.

Watch less than two hours of TV every evening adds almost a year and a half.

So what can you do if your job requires your buttocks to be glued to your chair all day?

Limit the damage.

Most people work 5 days a week. That means you've got 2 days a week to be active.

And during those five days, stand and walk whenever you can. For example. I avoid sitting when seeing patients ... and I tell them why.

Walk to a co-worker, don't email.

Use the stairs.

Park far away.

Limit meetings to minutes, not hours. Hey, everybody hates meetings anyway, so this is a mental health booster as well. So if you're one of those "at meetings I like to talk about everything" people -- zip it.

Walk at lunch.

Walk during breaks.

Be inventive. Be social. Get off your bottom.

Sit less, live longer.

And have a bottom that's less sore after a long day.

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