"Getting up can save your life!"

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.

In the car, in the office, in front of the television: Sitting around for a long time has a massive impact on life expectancy. What to do when you have an office job The interview.

Dr. Hidde van der Ploeg

Dr. Hidde van der Ploeg is research director at the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney.

Dr. van der Ploeg, most of us spend 90 percent of the day comfortably seated. Why is that actually so unhealthy?

When we run or even stand, our muscles work incessantly. This affects the entire metabolism. For example, more fat and sugar are broken down in the blood. If you sit against it, the muscles tend to be inactive. Then the blood lipid levels rise and the level of the "good" HDL cholesterol falls. Both of these can cause the arteries to calcify more quickly and the condition of the blood vessels to deteriorate. This increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Also, if you sit around too much, the sugar in the bloodstream breaks down more slowly and the cells become less sensitive to insulin. This increases the risk of diabetes.

The World Health Organization recommends being moderately active for at least 150 minutes per week. Their research shows that this is not enough.

We fully agree with the recommendations of the WHO. Adults should do light endurance training on a regular basis. This is also confirmed by our research: If two people spend the same amount of time sitting, the person who does sports to compensate for it has a longer life expectancy.

But it also counts how we behave in the other 15 hours that we are awake every day. If a person sits for more than eleven hours a day, they have a 40 percent higher risk of dying within three years than a person who spends less than four hours a day sitting. So: get up more often, your life can depend on it!

As a scientist, you can easily sit for eleven hours a day. What do you do to stay healthy?

Right, I have a desk job that I could sit around all day. I try to interrupt that as often as possible. For example, I talk on the phone while standing and I get up when talking to someone. I also prefer to go over to a colleague quickly instead of emailing them.

It is equally important to sit less outside of work. There is a lot of room for improvement there. Of course, no one can spend 100 percent of their waking time standing. But we just have to find a healthy balance of sitting, standing, walking and exercising.

Here in Sydney there are now some companies that offer flexible workplaces where you can stand or sit. They are usually very popular - maybe this is the future.

Her Dr. van den Ploeg, thank you very much for talking to us.

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