Attack of the killer chairs

March 6, 2015

The UF College of Health & Human Performance will host a lecture on the science behind sitting and the effects on our minds and bodies.

Dr. James A. Levine, author of “Get Up! Why Your Chair is Killing You,” will be the keynote speaker at the 2015 D. K. Stanley Lecture Series, hosted by the College of Health & Human Performance on March 26. The presentation will begin at 9:35 a.m. in the Florida Gym and will be followed by a student research symposium poster session at 10:30.

"Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death," says Levine, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, in his recent book.

Levine's claims are based on a study of "non-exercise activity thermogenesis" or NEAT, which is the amount of energy we use doing everything except sleeping, eating and exercise. NEAT activities include going to work, shoveling snow and taking a walk – and the more active your job is, the more NEAT calories you burn.

According to Levine, “Low NEAT is linked to, among other things, weight gain, diabetes, heart attacks and cancer.  So, standing while you read this could do something towards saving your life.”

Levine is the 30th speaker to participate in the D. K. Stanley Lecture series presented by the Frederick Family Endowment at the College of Health & Human Performance. Admission to the lecture is free and open to faculty, staff and students.

For more information, please contact Christine Coombes at 352-294-1622 or ccoombes@ufl.edu.