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How Your Rear End Helps
You Live Longer
By RealAge
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There's a new player in the fight to stay healthy: your rear end. Use it less for sitting and more for standing and you'll live longer.
That's what a recent study concluded. Compared with people who sat for less than 3 hours a day, those who sat for at least 6 hours per day
dramatically increased their risk of dying from any cause.
Stand Up for Health
Sitting too much turned out to be bad for everyone in the study, but even more so for females. Mortality rate in women who sat for 6 or more hours
a day increased by 40 percent, while the men's mortality rate increased by 20 percent for that same amount of chair time. In general, the more people
sat, the higher their risk of death crept up
Add More Activity
Do you log a fair amount of couch time outside of work? Well then, make double sure you have an exercise program. Those who sat the most and
were inactive in their free time fared the worst. Mortality rates more than doubled in men and women in this category compared with those who sat
the least and moved the most in their leisure moments. Basically, the more active you are all day long, the longer you'll live.
A hobby is more than a way to pass the time. It may be a way to get more of it.
Know which hobby has probably added years to the longest-lived people in the world? It's gardening. Okinawans -- whose men typically live to age 78,
women to age 86 -- have a long tradition of working with soil.
Flex Your Green Thumb
The benefits of gardening reach body and soul, according to Dan Buettner and his book The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People
Who've Lived the Longest. "It's a source of daily physical activity that exercises the body with a wide range of motion and helps reduce stress," he
writes. So, as the ground thaws and the seed catalogues start arriving, make a pact to plan -- and plant -- a plot this year.
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