Physical inactivity — defined as less than 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week — kills 5.3 million people worldwide annually, more than the 5 million who succumb to the dangers of cigarette smoking, researchers at Harvard report.

Getting off the couch or out from behind the computer could add more than eight months to average life expectancy, the researchers said. Physical inactivity figures prominently in such killers as colon cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly

MedPage Today:

The researchers commented that complete, global elimination of inactivity was unlikely, but with a 10% or 25% reduction in global rates of inactivity, an estimated 533,000 and 1.3 million deaths, respectively, due to all-cause mortality would be prevented.

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