Is Sitting the New Smoking?

Listen up all you couch potatoes.

I'm actually standing while typing this! Here is why.

Too much sitting is linked to heart disease, diabetes, and early death from all causes. That’s right, the World Health Organization puts sitting or physical inactivity 4th on the list of risk factors for death worldwide.

And while sitting isn’t good for either gender, women fare worse when it comes to spending the day in a chair. According to a study by the American Cancer Institute, women who sat for more than six hours a day were more likely to die than women who sat for three hours or less a day.

So if you have a job that requires more than six hours sitting at a desk, here are a few ideas to help you avoid those dismal statistics.

Read more from Dr. Linda Mintle on her Beliefnet blog "Doing Life Together."