health | kerrycue

In an article titled ‘Health experts have figured out how much time you should sit each day‘ in the Washinton Post (Brigid Schulte, 2 JUN, 2015), which prompted the standing-desk fad, Health experts warned that prolonged sitting on your butt is ‘associated with a significantly higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and depression, as well as muscle and joint problems.’

These conclusions are based on at least one study in the BJM where ‘Reduced sitting time was associated with telomere lengthening in blood cells in sedentary, overweight 68-year-old individuals participating in a 6-month physical activity intervention trial’. This is better than rats.

But looking at telomere lengths in overweight 68-year-olds is a severely limited study and sample size. Draw your own conclusions.

Kerry Cue is a humorist, journalist, mathematician, and author. Her latest book is a crime novel, Target 91, Penmore Press, Tucson, AZ (2019)

Drs. Dan Negoianu and Stanley Goldfarb at the University of Pennsylvania reviewed published clinical studies on the topic and found no data to suggest people need to stick to the “8 x 8″ rule.

“Indeed, it is unclear where this recommendation came from,” they write in an editorial in the June 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Then I had to look up Nephrology.

Nephrology deals with the physiology and diseases of the kidneys. So the KIDNEY GUYS say drinking “8 glasses of water a day” advice has no scientific basis or, it’s rubbish.