Ira Flatow from Science Friday recently spoke with an Australian researcher who, after studying 8,000+ participants, discovered that sitting (specifically watching TV) shortens your life span (Link to abstract).
Not surprisingly, the scientists found that those who sat a lot, had higher rates of cardiovascular disease. The surprising part was that, even if these people were not overweight, they still had an increase in CVD if they sat a lot. So, all you thin people out there who think it's still OK to watch TV for 3+ hours a night - beware!
This coincides with the video below showing that sitting increases the amount of fat in your bloodstream. Perhaps, the increase in fat in the bloodstream creates an increased risk of arteriosclerosis, since this is thought to occur by lipid oxidation.
There's hope though! The researchers suggest taking a break every twenty minutes and doing a little walking. Take this time to grab a glass of water, play with the kids, or get some fresh air. Apparently, this helps to reset the some internal mechanism in the body (I don't know what that is - perhaps the lipase thing alluded to in the post below).
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