Just when you find out that relaxing is good for your health, you find out that ‘sitting’ is not one of the ways to do it.
You can read all about it here and here. And to help you cut to the chase quickly, here are the two conclusions…
Study 1: Sitting and watching TV shortens your life by 22 minutes for every hour you spend glued to the screen. This means people who watch TV on average 3 hours a day are likely to shorten their life expectancy by 2 to 3 years.
Study 2: People who sit more than 10 hours per day have a 48% higher risk of dying than people who sit for less than 4 hours per day. Since most people with desk jobs (like me) already sit around 6 to 8 hours per day at the office, that doesn’t leave much for driving and relaxing at home without taking your life into your hands.
OK. So sitting is not only bad for you, it also appears to be a good predictor of how long you’ll live…. Which brings us to life insurance, which is what this blog’s about... remember?
You see, if we know that sitting is one of the factors that influences how long you’ll live, then surely this should also influence what you pay for life insurance. If you're deemed to be a big-time sitter, you're headed for an early grave and you should be charged more for your life insurance. Conversely, if you spend most of your time on your feet (eg a builder) then you should be charged less for your life insurance.
Here’s an idea :-)
On your life insurance application, you’re typically asked if you participate in dangerous pastimes such as sky diving, base jumping, rock climbing, scuba diving and so on, because these pastimes are likely to reduce your lifespan.
So how about adding another dangerous pastime to this list… like ‘sitting’?
