Have you heard of latest risk factor for death, heart disease and cancer? It's got to be something exotic, right? Maybe a new form of cholesterol or a hidden retrovirus? No, I'm afraid it's called sitting.

Yes, sitting can be dangerous, very dangerous for your health and heart. That's right - researchers have found that few things in your lifestyle can influence your survival as how often your butt is on a chair or couch. One study, for example, found that every hour in front of the television was associated with an increased risk of death by heart disease, cancer and all causes of 18 percent, 9 percent and 11 percent, respectively. [1]

NOTE: Remember that anything hard on the heart is also hard - or should I say limp? - on your erections as well.

This was really sobering for someone like myself who is a computer jockey by day. The study went on to state that for those who watch four or more hours of television per day have an 80 and 46 percent increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and all causes, repectively. These are monster numbers. The television and the computer, if you sit at them for extended periods of time, are the equivalent of a multi-pack smoking habit!

So is this just a television thing? We all know that television sucks the life out of your brain, so perhaps it hits the rest of the bod just as hard? Actually, it's not the television - it's the act of sitting that does it. For example, researchers divided people into groups that sit 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent of the time and then followed them for 12 years. The results were remarkable: a dose-dependent rise in death from all causes and cardiovascular disease. [2] In other words, the more sitting, the more likely the participants were to die from cardiovascular disease or all causes.

Why is sitting so deadly? The answer is suprising: it shuts off the activity of a key enzyme called lipase. Lipase is the enzyme that breaks down fat and, after an extended time of sitting, lipase activity plummets to as low as one tenth of its normal rate. One study showed that if lipase levels were increased in diabetically induced mice, they completely avoided elevated low cholesterol and triglycerides. [3] In other words, lipase activity is a powerful cardiovascular protection and may explain why rural, third world lifestyles are so heart protective.

Here is the key for all you TV lovers and those with a desk job: get up and move every few hours. No excuses - just get up and walk or do something where you're not sitting any more. The studies show that you retain fat much more easily when lipase metabolism drops. Of course, this explains how many of us have discovered that our spare tire has inflated dramatically when we got a sit-all-day type of desk or computer job.

So what is the answer? Move. Keep moving. Get up. Do more things standing. Our modern lifestyle is generally the antithesis of this. Activity has become countercultural, but it is absolutely critical to your health.

NOTE: Yes, this shows one important reason why video games for the kids, no matter how convenient, is probably a bad idea. (There are other reasons as well.)

Please write to webmaster@peaktestosterone.com with any questions or comments.

REFERENCES:

1) Circulation, Published Online Jan 11 2010, "Television Viewing Time and Mortality. The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab)"

2) Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, May 2009, 41(5):998-1005, "Sitting Time and Mortality from All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer"

3) Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, May 2009, 41(5):998-1005, "Overexpression of Human Lipoprotein Lipase Protects Diabetic Transgenic Mice From Diabetic Hypertriglyceridemia and Hypercholesterolemia"

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