VOA慢速英语:Sit Less, Live Longer

If you are sitting down listening to this Health Report, stand up. Move your legs. Touch your toes, if you can. Do anything but sit.
如果你正坐着听这期的健康报道，站起来。移动你的腿。如果可以的话，触摸下脚趾头。如果可以的话，只要别坐着干其他事都行。

If you cut down on the time you spend sitting, you might live longer. New research shows that sitting less than three hours a day might extend your life by two years.
如果你坐的时间少可能会更长寿。最新的研究表明，每天坐不超过三小时可延长两年寿命。

The human body is designed to move. But modern lifestyles and office jobs rarely give us the chance to move around.
人体被设计用于运动。但现代生活方式和办公室工作很少给我们机会走动。

Just the opposite, says Peter Katzmarzyk. He is a scientist at the University of Louisiana in the southern United States. He says that sitting is ubiquitous in our lives, meaning it is something we do all the time, everywhere. But, he adds, that does not make sitting good for us.
正好相反， Peter Katzmarzyk说。他是美国南部的路易斯安那大学的一名科学家。他说，我们生活中坐无处不在，这意味着我们无论何地都老坐着。但他补充说，这并不意味着坐对我们有益。

"Sitting is ubiquitous in our lives today. You know, we sit while we’re eating, we sit in the car, we sit while we watch TV. And many of us sit for many hours at work. So on average, Americans report that they sit between four and a half to five hours a day."
“当今生活坐无处不在。我们吃东西时坐着，在车里坐着，看电视时坐着。我们大多数人坐着工作几个小时。所以美国人报告称，他们平均每天坐4.5到5个小时。”

Exercise is important. But so is not sitting.
运动非常重要，所以别坐着。
Mr. Katzmarzyk says you may exercise often. But, he says even that does not mean you can sit for the rest of your waking hours.
Katzmarzyk先生称，你可能经常运动，但这并不意味着你其余清醒的时间可以坐着。

"We can’t throw away physical activity. It’s extremely important. We have 60 years of research showing us that. But sedentary behavior is also important -- even if you exercise for 30 minutes a day. What goes on in the other 23-and-a-half hours a day is also very important."
“我们不能放弃锻炼，它非常重要。我们有60年的研究可以证明这点。但是久坐行为影响也很大，即使你每天锻炼三十分钟，剩下的二十三个半小时怎么做也很关键。”

Mr. Katzmarzyk and his co-workers, or colleagues, are part of a new generation of researchers studying how sitting all day affects length of life. Such studies are rare.
新一代研究人员正在研究成天坐着会如何影响寿命，Katzmarzyk先生和他的同事是其中一份子。这类研究并不多见。

"This is a relatively new area of study - studies that have assessed the relationship between sitting and mortality or television viewing and mortality are very rare. There’s only been a few of them, actually five or six now, in the last four or five years."
“这是一个较为新颖的研究领域，这种评估坐和死亡率，或看电视与死亡率之间联系的研究并不多见。在过去四五年里都很少，到现在为止也只有四到五项这类研究。”

Mr. Karzmarzyk and his colleagues used the few rare studies available to them. They found that cutting television time to less than two hours a day could add one-point four years to life.
Karzmarzyk先生和他的同事借助了他们可以获得的这些少见的研究。他们发现，每天看电视的时间减少到2个小时以内，寿命可以延长1.4年。

New desk designs are helping
新办公桌设计大有帮助

Change is already coming to some offices, especially in the design of desks. A "standing desk" lets people stand while they work. Another new design is called the "treadmill desk." A treadmill is an exercise machine that lets you walk in one place. Even some U.S. schools are beginning to experiment with desks that are part bicycle to keep children moving.
对一些办公室来说，变化已经来临，特别是办公桌的设计。一种“站立式办公桌”让人们在工作时能够站着。另一项新的设计被称为跑步机办公桌。跑步机是一种在原地行走的运动器械。甚至一些美国学校开始尝试半自行车的课桌让孩子们运动。

边工作边锻炼

"That’s one of the strategies that many companies are using now. They may have got five standing desks for their employees or a treadmill desk. I’ve heard of other companies where they may not buy one for everybody .. but they’ll have a bank of these desks where people can go for an hour a day and answer their emails or talk on the phone."
“这是很多公司现在正在采用的策略之一。他们可能已经为员工购买了站立式办公桌或跑步机办公桌。我听说有些公司不会给每个人都买这种办公桌，但他们会准备一些这种办公桌，员工每天回复电子邮件或打电话时可以去用上一小时。”

Mr. Katzmarzyk says studying this problem has inspired his team to make a few changes in their own lives.
卡兹马兹克先生表示，研究这个问题已经激励他的团队对自己的生活做出了一些改变。

"As a university professor, you know, it is a very sedentary occupation. We’re chained to a desk in terms of writing papers and doing research. We really try to limit the amount of time we spend doing that."
他说，“作为一个大学教授，你知道，这是一项非常久坐的职业。我们在写论文或做研究时就像被拴在桌子上。我们确实在试图限制我们这样做的时间。”

Suggestions for sitting less
少坐的建议

If you work in office job or have a sedentary job, Mr. Katzmarzyk and his team suggest a few simple changes:
如果你在办公室工作或从事久坐的工作，卡兹马兹克先生及其团队建议做如下改变：
• get up from your desk as often as you can
尽量经常站起来
• take walks at lunch time
午餐时间散步
• instead of emailing colleagues, walk to their offices and talk directly
不要给同事发邮件，而是走到他们办公室去直接对话

All these activities may help you live longer.
所有这些举动可能有助于你更长寿。

Research on the good effects of sitting less is published in the online journal, British Medical Journal Open.
关于少坐益处的研究发表在网络杂志《英国医学杂志公开版》上。