They never are satisfied. No matter what I do, it is never enough. I try and try to meet their demands, then just when I am certain that I have finally sorted it all out . . . the exercise and health scientists come back again with yet another thing I must do to ward off the Big C.
Last week, I had a refrigerator and freezer filled with fruits, vegetables; boneless, skinless chicken and packages of healthy salmon. My cupboard held a stash of high fiber cereal, almonds and oatmeal. I had just firmly resolved to include at least 30 minutes of exercise every day.
I was so ready to be healthy. I felt pretty good about myself – until I read that article on WebMD Health News. It was full of doom and gloom for office workers.
It ruined my day.
Succinctly put, “It seems highly likely that the longer you sit, the higher your risk of cancer” according to the study’s author Neville Owen, PhD, of Australia’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.
“Sitting time is emerging as a strong candidate for being a cancer risk factor in its own right,” Owen said and added that the link is not dependent on body weight or the level of exercise done.
“Sitting time is emerging as a strong candidate for being a cancer risk factor in its own right,” Owen said and added that the link is not dependent on body weight or the level of exercise done.
Of course, that was all it took for the American Cancer Society to start meddling in my life and recommending that office workers and commuters get up every hour and move around for a couple minutes.
A couple minutes every hour?! I just settle into writing a feature story, laying out a page and I’m to stop, stand and walk around?! Give me a break.
And, why are they picking on office workers, anyway? What about long haul truck drivers? What about unemployed couch potatoes? What about babysitters?
What about them? They are just sitting, too.
But no, the ACS never picks on folks like that, just me and my kind, the white collar folks, gainfully employed at providing necessary information and services for the general public.
Now the ACS says it is not enough to eat right, put in bit of time on the machine every day, now I am to stop in the middle of my flow of thought, stand up and take a walk around the office.
Or in the words of more scientific folks:
Higher activity could prevent nearly 100,000 cases of breast and colon cancer in the U.S. each year, estimates Christine Friedenreich, PhD, research scientist and epidemiologist at Alberta Health Services in Canada. She estimated that about 30 percent of the colon cancers, or nearly 43,000, could be prevented with activity. About 21 percent of breast cancers, or about 49,000, might be avoided.
In her research, Friedenreich recently found that women who began to exercise had much lower levels of C-reactive protein, an indicator of inflammation and possibly cancer risk, than those who did not.
The bottom line for reducing health risks . . . including cancer? “Exercise is good, but you can’t sit all the time,” says Leslie Bernstein, PhD, professor and director of the division of cancer etiology at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, Calif.
Just when we felt good about having exercised at all, just when we thought it was safe to come in from the day of work, having completed our 30 minutes of exercise, just when we figured we had earned the right to come home, flop on the couch and not move again until bed time, those scientific busy bodies found another way to say, “It is not enough. There are dramatic effects of sitting time on the
likelihood of dying.”
The study, led by Bernstein’s former doctoral student, Alpa Patel, PhD, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society, found the likelihood of dying during the 14-year follow-up was higher in those who spent six or more hours a day sitting, compared to those who spent less than three hours. The risk was 37 percent higher for women sitting six or more hours and 18 percent for men.
Higher activity could prevent nearly 100,000 cases of breast and colon cancer in the U.S. each year, estimates Christine Friedenreich, PhD, research scientist and epidemiologist at Alberta Health Services in Canada. She estimated that about 30 percent of the colon cancers, or nearly 43,000, could be prevented with activity. About 21 percent of breast cancers, or about 49,000, might be avoided.
In her research, Friedenreich recently found that women who began to exercise had much lower levels of C-reactive protein, an indicator of inflammation and possibly cancer risk, than those who did not.
The bottom line for reducing health risks . . . including cancer? “Exercise is good, but you can’t sit all the time,” says Leslie Bernstein, PhD, professor and director of the division of cancer etiology at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, Calif.
Just when we felt good about having exercised at all, just when we thought it was safe to come in from the day of work, having completed our 30 minutes of exercise, just when we figured we had earned the right to come home, flop on the couch and not move again until bed time, those scientific busy bodies found another way to say, “It is not enough. There are dramatic effects of sitting time on the
likelihood of dying.”
The study, led by Bernstein’s former doctoral student, Alpa Patel, PhD, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society, found the likelihood of dying during the 14-year follow-up was higher in those who spent six or more hours a day sitting, compared to those who spent less than three hours. The risk was 37 percent higher for women sitting six or more hours and 18 percent for men.
Talk about gender prejudice … women get twice as high of a chance of dying if they just sit around.
As if my football, basketball, baseball fan needs any more validation that he is healthier sit in front of the tube than I am. With twice as great a chance of dying, I can’t just sit down and watch TV with him, I must walk around the room during every commercial break. Walk around the block every day. Park at the end of the lot so I walk further to the office, walk my pencil to the pencil sharpener – the old fashion kind with a handle to crank. I must get up and do something.
As if my football, basketball, baseball fan needs any more validation that he is healthier sit in front of the tube than I am. With twice as great a chance of dying, I can’t just sit down and watch TV with him, I must walk around the room during every commercial break. Walk around the block every day. Park at the end of the lot so I walk further to the office, walk my pencil to the pencil sharpener – the old fashion kind with a handle to crank. I must get up and do something.
It’s all too much for me, I think I need to go lie down and eat a couple of cookies.