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We already know that too much sitting can put you at risk for cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes just for a start. Now, it seems that too much sitting can put women at risk for certain cancers.
In a study done on 146,000 men and women between 1992 to 2009, 31,000 participants developed cancer. A large number of them were women, and the connection was startling.
Women who spent more time sitting during their leisure time had a ten percent overall higher risk in cancer. And strangely enough, this wasn’t the case for men at all.
High levels of sitting were associated with multiple myeloma, invasive breast cancer, and ovarian cancer.
While one would think that increased amounts of exercise would decrease these women’s risk of cancer, the study accounted for exercise levels and weight, too. And unfortunately, it seems that even women who exercise AND sit more are still at increased risk.
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The study didn’t answer the question of why this is a factor that affects women and not men, and the study also wasn’t one that tried to establish the cause and effect between sitting and cancer. But the link is there, and it’s a scary one. Now, it seems that reduced resting time and increased physical activity aren’t intertwined, they’re two totally separate factors.
More studies would be needed to find the real link behind this finding, but in the meantime, it’s definitely a wake-up call for women’s health.
What do you think of this study?
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