There鈥檚 a saying going around that sitting is the new smoking. It鈥檚 a bit snarky and perhaps a none-too-subtle dig at those of us who spend a lot of time on our rear ends for work and pleasure. But Dr. James Levine, who is credited with it, is dead serious. In fact, he says, sitting could be worse than smoking.
What to do about it? Get Up! is the title of Levine鈥檚 new book, a jovial tale of how he came to the scientific conclusion that our chairs are killing us and what can be done to stop the threat.
We lose two hours of life for every hour we sit, writes Levine, director of the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative and inventor of the treadmill desk. Sitting all day is not natural and to blame for all kinds of ailments, including obesity, he says.
鈥淲e have created for ourselves a modern way of living that clashes with the way we鈥檙e meant to be,鈥� he writes.
So the obvious answer is to move more, by, for example, taking walks after meals, something Levine writes that he does after every meal.
鈥淥n one hand, the good news is that this is incredibly easy. The bad news is this is incredibly difficult,鈥� especially for a computer-centric workforce, Levine said in a telephone interview.
Yet Levine is optimistic that the revolution to overthrow sitting is at hand. He sees the arrival of dynamic offices, with walking paths from department to department, active senior centres and classrooms. And those will lead to healthier and happier people, he says.
鈥淚 think the revolution is coming. It鈥檚 going to happen. The cool companies, cool executives are not driving BMWs, they鈥檙e on treadmills. My kids won鈥檛 be working the way my colleagues and myself have,鈥� he says.
鈥淭his is about hard-core productivity. You will make money if your workforce gets up and gets moving. Your kids will get better grades if they get up and get moving,鈥� he says.
鈥淭he science is not refuted.鈥�
That was not always the case. As he tells it in the book, he was ridiculed by a number of colleagues when he first began talking about the dangers of sitting.
The science turns on the study of NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, the energy expenditure of activity other than sports. It includes dancing, going to work, shovelling snow and taking a walk, Levine writes. So you can imagine a construction worker uses a lot more NEAT calories than a computer programmer in the course of a workday.
鈥淟ow NEAT is linked to weight gain, diabetes, heart attacks and cancer,鈥� Levine writes.
In an experiment in which people were overfed by the same amount 鈥� 1,000 calories a day 鈥� Levine and his colleagues found that some people had a 鈥減owerful NEAT switch鈥� that gets them moving to use excess energy.
鈥淭hose people who do not have a NEAT switch remain sitting in response to overfeeding and are predisposed to obesity,鈥� he writes.
The difference was two hours and 15 minutes a day of movement versus sitting.
