https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... story.html
Spending too much of the day sitting has been linked to weight gain, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Might it also age you biologically?
The study analyzed data on 1,481 older women (age 79, on average) who wore movement trackers to record their activity. They also had DNA samples extracted to measure the length of telomeres, the caps at the end of DNA strands that protect chromosomes from wearing down, somewhat like the plastic tips at the end of shoelaces. Telomeres naturally become shorter with age. On average, the participants were sedentary for about nine hours a day. Women who were the most sedentary had the shortest telomeres, a length that the researchers said correlated to their being biologically older by eight years than their actual age. Abnormally shortened telomeres were not found among women who recorded at least 30 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity.