The saying that sitting is the new smoking has been used for years. Research shows that nowadays we spend many hours of the day sitting. We sit behind our laptop or computer in the office or in the lecture hall, sit on the train or car and when we come home after a long day at work we plop down on the couch.
Sitting for long periods of time is not healthy. Research in the last fifteen years has shown that prolonged sitting increases the risk of chronic conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The good news is that we can solve this very easily: just regularly interrupt sitting and move more! Get up, take a short walk to the coffee machine or printer, walk around the block during lunch and enjoy cycling to campus.
In contrast to sitting, smoking is even bad for your health if you do it only occasionally. Studies on smoking in the early years are unequivocal: young people who start smoking early have a higher risk of addiction, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and many respiratory problems. Second-hand smoke (breathing in tobacco smoke from the environment) is also harmful. Furthermore, an addiction to cigarettes is less easy to solve. To successfully quit smoking, guidance from a professional is usually required using aids (such as nicotine patches). And even then, a relapse is still lurking for a long time.
In short, my advice to the student who ran down the stairs to exchange it for a cigarette is: next time take the escalator anyway and please ignore the cigarette.
Hanan El Marroun is Professor of Biological Psychology.
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