Too Much Sitting Shortens Lives, Study Suggests | Hacker News Reader

Too Much Sitting Shortens Lives, Study Suggests

nytimes.com

20 pointstokenadult17 comments

Right - it's the sitting. It couldn't possibly be that the kind of person that watches hours upon hours of TV each day just might have other unhealthy habits...

That's true, but other observational studies have also connected many forms of inactivity to reduced health relative to many forms of activity.

Of course, one would want to look at this study in light of Peter Norvig's advice

http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html

on interpreting research studies.

"Although it is possible that people who were already ill watched more television than those who were healthy, the researchers tried to rule that out by excluding subjects who already had heart disease.."

This is a typical same old correlation - causation confusion. There are many more "althoughs" and all of them have to be excluded before the title can be justified.

However, an EXPERIMENTAL design for a study of this issue would go a long way toward clearing up that problem.

Two groups - one spends 4 hours per day watching TV and the other spends 2-4 hours per day doing something more active. Did it really take research to highlight which was more beneficial to life expectancy?

No, but it takes research to quantify it.

Sure but I thought the benefit of exercise was quantified already. Quantifying the value of (!exercise) seems redundant.

This is why all Buddhist monks die young.

Not to mention cyclists and rowers.

I wouldn't call what cyclists and rowers do "sitting." But, more to the point of your comment and its parent, does anyone have any carefully gathered figures on differences in mortality between Buddhist monks and other residents of countries the monks live in, or between cyclists and rowers and their compatriots?

What makes you think that the careful body balance of the buddhist monk and the graceless laying down of the couch potato are the same thing? They both are called "sitting" because share the same pivot point (the buttocks), and both are motionless too; but one requires much more effort and energy expenditure than the other.

They levitate.

No explanation, no science.

I <3 my treadmill desk.

Even a standing desk arrangement can totally change your attitude (pun intended). Just make sure to have comfortable shoes or a good floor.

how to waste 6 and a half years in grad school...

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