

Too Much Sitting Shortens Lives, Study Suggests - tokenadult
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/health/26beha.html

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ryandvm
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...

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

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tokenadult
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.

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prat
"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.

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

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nopassrecover
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?

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nfnaaron
No, but it takes research to quantify it.

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

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dlsspy
This is why all Buddhist monks die young.

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Alex3917
Not to mention cyclists and rowers.

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tokenadult
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?

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tungstenfurnace
No explanation, no science.

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fuelfive
I <3 my treadmill desk.

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

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

