{"id":16729,"date":"2014-07-13T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-07-13T10:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=16729"},"modified":"2014-07-12T21:36:06","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T01:36:06","slug":"old-or-young-dont-just-sit-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2014\/07\/13\/old-or-young-dont-just-sit-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Old or young: don’t just sit there!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"We<\/a>

More of us need to go outside and play! (NCPR photo of the day by John Sherman, Barneveld, NY: Surfing Sand Bay ahead of the storm as the winds off Lake Ontario move down river.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Summer is in full flush, with so many things to do. But, whatever the season, more and more research suggests <\/span>everybody<\/i>\u00a0needs to get up off the couch!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/b>(Or at least move around while rooting for Argentina or Germany on the big screen.)<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to good health, there’s the importance of diet – which has been summed up pretty succinctly by\u00a0Michael Pollan<\/a>\u00a0with this advice:\u00a0“Eat food. Not too much.\u00a0Mostly Plants.”<\/a><\/p>\n

We’ve all been told to get regular exercise because being sedentary has many negative health consequences. But there’s growing evidence that basic activity levels (what you do when not<\/em> out jogging) play into this picture too.<\/p>\n

“Sitting is bad for you” is one message that made the rounds lately. Actually, a whole lot of headlines went straight for the fear factor, saying excessive\u00a0sitting\u00a0will kill you<\/a>. (Dale Hobson weighs in on which of those risks he’s willing to take in this Listening Post from 2013<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Those who study facts and trends are warning that the next generation is on track to reverse a steady increase in life expectancy by leading shorter, less-healthy lives than their parents did. The consequences of that – in terms of lost productivity, higher health care costs and plain old human misery – are pretty profound.<\/p>\n

A July 9 post by Gretchen Reynolds<\/a>\u00a0for the New York Times health blog “Well”<\/a> calls attention to new studies that young people (kids!) are just not getting enough physical action for basic fitness either:<\/p>\n

\n

For the past few decades, accumulating data and anecdotal evidence have shown that children in the United States are becoming more sedentary. Less than a third of young people ages 12 to 18 are said to achieve the recommended levels of physical activity for their age group, which would be about an hour a day of exercise.<\/p>\n

Instead, epidemiological studies suggest, physical activity among American youngsters peaks before age 10, and perhaps as early as 2, and begins a steady and accelerating decline after that. By some reports, children typically spend eight to 10 hours a day\u00a0in front of a television or computer screen<\/a>, with their screen time rising in summer, when school doesn\u2019t interfere.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 4. Percentage of youth aged 12\u201315 who had adequate levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, by sex and survey period: United States, 1999\u20132004 and 2012. (My comment: Note the downward trend in only a decade’s time.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Physical activity perhaps peaking by age 2<\/em>?!?! Yikes!<\/p>\n

Supporting data come from a National Center for Health Statistics Data brief from May of this year “Cardiorespriratory Fitness Levels Among U.S. Youth Aged 12-15 Years: Untied States, 1999-2004 and 2012”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The comments on that NYT post are wide-ranging in observations, comparisons and suggestions. Readers (presumably older) mention how common it used to be to do things like walk<\/em> to school, engage in unsupervised play and do physical work around the house or family business. Technology, screen time, de-funding of P.E. in schools and plain old bad parenting all come up for a good deal of criticism too.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is less of an issue in our region, where the hard work of farming is still common and so much wilderness is close enough to enjoy.<\/p>\n

But since technology isn’t going away, we may need to do more – collectively and individually – to keep from from dying of inactivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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