sedentary behavior

18 Stories

Cellphone Use Is a Pain in the Neck
Cellphone Use Is
a Pain in the Neck
NEW STUDY
Apr 28, 2025 11:13 AM CDT

Cellphone Use Is a Pain in the Neck

Behavior tied to 82% increased risk of neck pain, per meta-analysis

(Newser) - Cellphones have made our lives easier in many ways, but they're also a pain in the neck. When it comes to neck pain, using mobile phones is the riskiest screen-based activity, boosting the likelihood by 82%, according to a meta-analysis covering 25 studies involving more than 43,000 people,...

That Standing Desk Isn't Saving You From Your Sedentary Life

Researchers say standing over 2 hours raises risk of circulatory disease

(Newser) - They say sitting is the new smoking . But trying to head off health problems tied to prolonged sitting by standing instead isn't a great solution. In findings sure to surprise those reading this from a standing desk, researchers determined standing more compared with sitting does not reduce one's...

For Those Who Sit All Day, Coffee Reduces Death Risk
Coffee Could Save
Your Sedentary Life
NEW STUDY
Jun 27, 2024 9:30 AM CDT

Coffee Could Save Your Sedentary Life

Researchers say it appears to offset mortality risk in those who sit for long periods

(Newser) - Researchers have long warned that sitting for most of the day is bad for your health. But if you're drinking coffee while you're sitting, the picture is better, according to new research. In a study published in the journal BMC Public Health , Chinese researchers who analyzed data on...

Don't Pat Yourself on the Back Just Yet for That Half-Hour Run

Researchers warn 30-minute daily exercise may not make up for sitting around the rest of the day

(Newser) - If you refuse to identify as a "couch potato" because of that half-hour workout you diligently slip in each day, despite the fact that you're sedentary for much of the rest of it, you might actually still be a couch potato—just an "active" one. And what...

WHO Says People Need to Get More Active

Agency says pandemic has made situation worse

(Newser) - As the coronavirus leaves many people housebound and many Americans sit to feast for Thanksgiving, the World Health Organization says people need to get more active, insisting that up to 5 million deaths worldwide could be avoided each year if people would run, walk, and simply move more. The United...

Even Some Activity Keeps Death at Bay for Couch Potatoes

And one hour wipes out death risk from 8 hours of sitting, scientists say

(Newser) - If you think squeezing an hour of exercise in per day can't come close to making up for the other 23 hours when you're relatively sedentary—and so you don't bother at all—rethink that strategy. A study by Cambridge University and the Norwegian School of Sports...

10K Steps a Day Might Not Get You Fit

The number has its roots in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

(Newser) - Ten thousand steps. It's easy to remember, and a goal lauded by several wearable fitness trackers, but is it actually a good daily target for fitness? The number is too simplistic and not for everyone, reports the Huffington Post . For instance, for the extremely sedentary, taking 10,000 steps—...

Risk of Anxiety Higher When You Do Too Much of This

Sitting's bad rap continues

(Newser) - If you sit too much throughout the day—behind the wheel, at your desk, or on the couch—you may be increasing your risk of developing an anxiety disorder. So report researchers in Australia this month in the journal BMC Public Health after they reviewed nine studies on the issue...

Stand Up, Desk Jockeys —for at Least 2 Hours a Day

Guidelines say to eventually bump that to 4 hours to combat sedentary sitting

(Newser) - Office lackeys may spend up to 75% of their workday sitting, which can lead to serious health consequences . That's why an international panel now recommends office workers stand at least two hours a day, eventually bumping that to four hours, per a press release . The new guidelines, published in...

Running Too Much May Be as Bad as Sitting Around

Study points to mortality concerns among hard-core joggers

(Newser) - It's common knowledge that a healthy person shouldn't sit around all day, but new research on running is emphasizing the opposite danger. Running too much can be just as bad for you as being sedentary, the study suggests. Researchers tracked some 1,100 healthy runners and 413 sedentary...

Bad News, Desk Jockeys: Sitting Now Linked to Cancer
Bad News, Desk Jockeys: Sitting Now Linked to Cancer
STUDY SAYS
Jun 17, 2014 2:39 PM CDT

Bad News, Desk Jockeys: Sitting Now Linked to Cancer

Sedentary people more prone to colon, endometrial cancers

(Newser) - Another day, yet another way that sitting at your desk is killing you : This time a new study has linked sitting around with certain types of cancer, reports LiveScience . Specifically, for every two-hour increment spent at the desk or on the couch, people saw an 8% greater risk of colon...

Doctor: Lack of Exercise Is a Medical Condition

It's time to treat it as 'deconditioning,' he argues

(Newser) - Didn't exercise this week? You're not just lazy, you have a medical condition, argues one physiologist in the Journal of Physiology . Michael Joyner thinks it's time doctors made a serious push against "deconditioning," he tells NPR's Shots blog . The sedentary lives many of us...

Sitting Is 'Fatal'? Show Me the Proof

Peter Katzmarzyk's 'sedentary lifestyle' study didn't prove the point

(Newser) - So you've read that a sedentary lifestyle may be more dangerous than smoking ? Hope you didn't buy a new stand-up desk, because the research in question failed to prove a link between inactivity and early death, writes The Numbers Guy at the Wall Street Journal : "It...

Sit 3 Hours a Day, Die 2 Years Earlier

...even if you're healthy otherwise: study

(Newser) - It's a wonder anyone dares sit anymore, considering the avalanche of recent studies that have been telling us that doing so ups our risk of cancer and heart disease , makes us fatter , and turns meetings into awful experiences . And here's a new one to add to the pile:...

Does This Chair Make My Butt Look Fat?
 Does This Chair 
 Make My Butt 
 Look Fat? 
study says: yes!
Dec 6, 2011 2:00 AM CST

Does This Chair Make My Butt Look Fat?

Scientists find sitting bulks up behinds

(Newser) - You've worried about clothes making you look fat—apparently, you should have worried about chairs actually making you fat. That's because sitting for long stretches can actually make you fatter, scientists have found. Studies suggest that the pressure placed in the butt and hips from sitting too long...

Sitting All Day Is Making You Fat



 Sitting All Day 
 Is Making You Fat 
STUDIES SAY:
Feb 24, 2010 11:59 AM CST

Sitting All Day Is Making You Fat

Sedentary life destroys gains of exercise, makes metabolism go haywire

(Newser) - Exercise all you want, but that office chair—or your couch at home—will erase your good intentions. Multiple studies, Olivia Judson writes, have shown that people who sit for extended periods can’t help but pack on the pounds. Consider this result: “Among people who sit in front...

Sitting at That Computer Is Shortening Your Life

Too much time in the chair increases risk of just about everything

(Newser) - Hey you, reading this at your computer: You might want to get up and stretch. A new study shows that every hour per day spent in front of that monitor raises your risk of early death from heart disease by a whopping 18%—ie, someone who spends an average of...

Surgeon General Targets Killer Blood Clots

Easily treated 'silent' condition kills about 100,000 each year

(Newser) - An easily treatable complication related to blood clots kills 100,000 Americans every year, but a new federal awareness campaign aims to change that, the AP reports. Although deep vein thrombosis affects up to 600,000 people a year, "I don't think most people understand that this is a...

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