News about James Levine

Don't smoke, don't drink or eat to excess - these are health mantras most of us are familiar with. And more recently there's another one to add to this list: don't sit for too long. This advice reflects a growing understanding that sitting really is bad for our health - in fact, in 2014, Dr James Levine, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. coined the phrase 'sitting is the new smoking' to reflect the emerging evidence linking being sedentary with ill-health. Some studies suggest people who spend six to eight hours sitting each day have a 20 per cent higher risk of premature death from any cause. But why would sitting cause health problems?