Are Your Work Habits Shortening Your Life Expectancy?

Are You Sitting Yourself to Death?

Sitting down at your desk at work with your computer seems to be the best-known way to make you productive. But is it?

For many years I worked as a SharePoint developer and architect for major companies in Melbourne. And to complete my project tasks like writing a business requirements document, drawing an system architecture diagram for my team, and creating a project plan for product delivery ALL included sitting down at my computer and typing. Sure, meetings with my team and business stakeholders broke up my day, but most of my day hours where spent sitting! I never researched how sitting all day was potentially shortening my life.

Five large-scale studies included 2 million people in many countries found that the life expectancies of people who spent more than 3 hours a day sitting were shaving 2 years off their life. How many hours are you sitting every day on average?

“It’s right in the same ballpark as smoking and obesity—sedentary behavior is in the same category,” says Peter Katzmarzyk of Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center and lead author of the paper. “Smoking is still the Number One risk factor [for early death], but sitting is catching up.”

Katzmarzyk’s study found that the life expectancy was reduced regardless of whether a person got sufficient exercise or not.

Other studies have found that prolonged sitting increases the rate of cardiovascular disease, decreases insulin effectiveness, and slows metabolism.

So sitting is just one aspect of your longevity, but there are others like your levels of hydration. I have put together a free health assessment below so that you will know where you stand in terms of your longevity and your habits at work.