别让久坐杀死你

    如果你像大多数“知识工作者”一样，那你肯定坐着的时候居多。首先，在通勤途中，你要坐在汽车或是地铁里，上班期间的大部分时间也是以坐着为主，晚上则是坐在计算机屏幕或电视前面。

    所以，你或许会会想起今年年初以及早在2010年一些耸人听闻的媒体报道，报道称，久坐（被誉为“新型烟草”）可能会致命。梅约诊所（Mayo Clinic）的内分泌学家詹姆斯•莱文曾对《纽约时报》（The New York Times）表示：“过长时间坐着是一种会致死的行为。”

    我们都知道，坐的时间太长会长胖，但不幸的是，“坐出来的疾病”要比这还严重。美国心脏协会（American Heart Association）一月份公布的研究报告显示，每天在桌前坐5个小时，会使男性患心脏病的几率增加一倍。此外，这种久坐的行为也会使“患致命疾病的风险”增加一倍，包括癌症和糖尿病。

    久坐不动的女性，情况同样糟糕。比如说，四年前，美国癌症协会（American Cancer Society）在《美国流行病学》杂志（American Journal of Epidemiology）上发表了一项历时13年的研究成果，他们在1993-2006年期间对123,216人进行跟踪，结果令人沮丧：每天坐着超过六个小时的女性，早逝的几率增加了40%。

    以下才是最可怕的部分。所有医学研究均认为，每天锻炼或定期锻炼，虽然可以保持体形，但却无法抵消久坐对健康造成的可怕影响。

    不过也有好消息：事实证明，上述研究结果并非完全正确。没有人说久坐的生活有益健康，但似乎长时间埋头案牍但保持体魄强健的人，英年早逝的几率要小得多。

    首先，以美国癌症协会在最新一期《梅约诊所学报》（Mayo Clinic Proceedings）上发表的报告为例。1981年至2012年期间，研究人员对达拉斯一家诊所的1,304名男性进行了研究，结果发现，即便长时间静坐，良好的全面健身运动（根据平板运动试验的结果），仍会“显著”降低患心脏疾病的风险。

    还有更好的消息。最新一期《美国心脏病学会杂志》（Journal of the American College of Cardiology）上发表的研究，调查了55,000名成年人，结果发现，在业余时间跑步的伏案工作者，过早死亡的风险降低了约三分之一。跑步的受访者患心脏病的风险，比不跑步的受访者降低了45%。

    而且，上述结果与跑步时间长短无关：每天只跑五分钟的受访者，与每天跑30分钟或以上的受访者，得到了相同的结果。研究称：“即便运动量很低或速度很慢，但跑步还是会显著降低死亡率。”

    假如你连每天跑步五分钟也无法承受的话，专家们认为，通过站起来尽可能轻快地移动，也可以减少久坐带来的风险。一张站立式办公桌很有帮助，如果有跑步机的办公桌自然更好，但如果这些都无法实现，只需要“找机会站起来，让自己动起来，”曼哈顿医疗服务机构One Medical的骨科医生娜塔莎•威瑟斯说道。

    她建议道：“不乘电梯，改成走楼梯。选择距离办公桌最远的咖啡机。接电话的时候不妨站起来。与同事会面时，不要坐在会议桌前，可以绕着办公室边走边聊。”

    每周至少活动147分钟，是个不错的主意。这是疾病控制中心（Centers for Disease Control）建议的最低标准——在美国，目前仅有20%的人达到了这一标准。（财富中文网）

    翻译：刘进龙/汪皓

f you’re like most “knowledge workers,” you sit a lot. First you sit in the car or on the train on the way to and from work, as well as for most of the hours in between, and then in front of a computer screen or a TV in the evening.

So maybe you recall the alarming headlines, earlier this year and as long ago as 2010, that said sitting—dubbed by some as “the new smoking”—will probably kill you. “Excessive sitting is a lethal activity,” Mayo Clinic endocrinologist James Levine memorably told The New York Times. Yikes.

We all know that sitting too much can pack on the pounds, but alas, it seems “sitting disease” is much worse than that. Parking at a desk for just five hours a day doubles the risk of heart failure in men, according to research released in January by the American Heart Association. Such sedentary behavior also raises by almost 50% the “risk of death from any cause,” including cancer and diabetes.

Inactive women don’t fare much better. For instance, one study, by the American Cancer Society, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology four years ago, followed 123,216 people over 13 years, from 1993 to 2006. A grim finding: women who sat for more than six hours a day increased their odds of early death by 40%.

Here’s the really scary part. All of the various medical studies agreed that a daily workout, or exercising regularly enough to be in good shape physically, did nothing to offset the dire health effects of sitting the rest of the time.

But now comes the good news: it turns out that may not be true after all. Nobody is saying that a sedentary life is good for you, but it seems that desk jockeys who stay physically fit may face a far smaller chance of dying young.

First, consider what the American Cancer Society found in a new report in the current issue of the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. When researchers studied 1,304 men at a Dallas clinic between 1981 and 2012, they found that good overall fitness, as measured by performance on a treadmill test, “significantly” cut heart disease risk, despite prolonged periods of sitting.

It gets better. Another study, this one in the current Journal of the American College of Cardiology, looked at 55,000 adults’ behavior and found that people with desk jobs who run in their spare time cut their overall risk of premature death by about one-third. Runners’ risk of heart disease is 45% lower than non-runners’.

Moreover, it doesn’t take a marathon: the same results were found for people who ran as little as five minutes each day as for people who regularly ran for 30 minutes or longer. “Running even at lower doses or slower speeds was associated with significant mortality benefits,” the study says.

Let’s say that even five daily minutes of running strikes you as five minutes too many. Luckily, experts agree that you can cut some of the risks of sitting just by standing up and moving around as much, and as briskly, as you can. A standing desk or, better yet, a treadmill desk, can help, but if neither of those is practical, simply “look for opportunities to stand up and be active,” says Natasha Withers, an osteopathic physician at One Medical in Manhattan.

“Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Pick the coffee machine that’s farthest from your desk,” she suggests. “Stand while you’re talking on the phone. When you’re meeting with coworkers, instead of sitting at a conference table, walk laps around the office.”

It’s a good idea to aim for at least 147 minutes of motion a week. That’s the minimum recommended by the Centers for Disease Control—a standard that, currently, only about 20% of Americans manage to meet.