Sitting is the Next Smoking

For a time smoking was cool. Everyone wanted to be the Marlboro man, until he got lung cancer and died. Then smokers were uncool. Smokers gathered in little knots, outside doors, no longer allowed even in bars and restaurants.

Today sitting is the next smoking. We are in the midst of a sitting epidemic. The average American sits 10 hours a day. We sit in the car on the commute to and from work, we sit at our desks at work, we watch four hours of TV a day, we sit in front of our computer doing Facebook and exploring the web.

All this sitting is leading to epidemics of diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer. We need to get up and move more, even if that is just walking three days a week, 30 minutes a day. We need to park at the other end of the lot at the grocery store and take extra steps. We need to get off the couch and move. We need to get up from the desk at work and move every hour. Move. Move. Move.

By moving more, and quitting eating and drinking junk, we can eliminate half the illnesses and injuries in people 50 and older. We can reduce a lot of the health care costs that are soaring and stressing out our pocketbooks and our national budget. Each of us needs to make the decision to sit less and move more, and if we do it will make all the difference for us as individuals and as a country.