Bummer — Sitting Down Gives You Cancer

If like many of us you sit on your backside all day, your chances of cancer are higher than if you peppered your workday with, say, a Nerf war or a few push-ups.

I know. “Sitting in a chair” causes cancer sounds ridiculous. Bit it is really bad for you, mainly because it means you’re not moving around at all. A study by an epidemiologist at Alberta Health Services in Canada found that 173,000 cases of cancer of per year might be caused by buttsky-sitting syndrome.

Christine Friedenreich, who presented her findings on Thursday at the American Institute for Cancer Research conference, says that includes 49,000 cases of breast cancer and 43,000 cases of colon cancer in the United States. Also: 37,200 cases of lung cancer, 30,600 cases of prostate cancer, 12,000 cases of endometrial cancer and 1,800 cases of ovarian cancer can be at least partly blamed on sitting.

The study is not a one-off. A growing body of research is finding that sitting is dangerous to your health, even if you hit the gym daily. If you sit on your butt the rest of the day, you might cancel out the benefits of your workout.

The good news is that another study also presented at the AICR meeting found that even if you have a job that requires you to sit all day, one to two minute breaks involving light exercise can reduce levels of cancer-linked molecules in your body.

So next time you fire your Nerf Vortex Praxis at your co-worker, just explain: “Dude, I’m saving your life!” [LiveScience; Image: Shutterstock/rook76]