Longevity & AgingSitting Too Long Raises Cancer Death Risk — Even Short Activity Breaks Help
New research from the University of Glasgow tracked over 90,000 people using wearable accelerometers to measure sedentary time and physical activity. The study found that every additional hour of prolonged, uninterrupted sitting was linked to a 10% higher risk of dying from cancer. Encouragingly, replacing just one hour of sedentary time with light activity — or adding as little as five minutes of vigorous movement — was associated with meaningful reductions in cancer mortality risk. The findings applied to several cancer types including lung, breast, and oral cancers, as well as leukemia. Researchers emphasize that not just total sitting time, but how continuously you sit, matters for cancer risk.
