Sitting is the New Smoking

André Picard, writing for The Globe and Mail, on how our sedentary lives are killing us:

The researchers found that the least active, essentially those who sit all day, had a:

147-per-cent increased risk of heart attack or stroke;

112-per-cent increase in the risk of developing diabetes;

90-per-cent greater risk of dying from a cardiac event;

49-per-cent greater risk of premature mortality.

[…]

And there is good evidence that inactivity now kills more people than smoking each year.

We have engineered activity out of our daily lives and it’s taking a real toll on our health, individually and collectively.

The best way to combat inactivity is to integrate activity into daily living. Going to the gym is an additional item that needs to be crammed into an already busy schedule but walking to work or to the store is just a part of life in walkable neighborhoods - no special decision or additional time needed. The threshold between sedentary and adequately active is tiny: just 30–60 minutes of walking a day. This is easily achieved if walking is just part of living our lives. This public health crisis will require many solutions but a great place to start is the design of our communities.