We are spending more time sitting then ever before in history, and it’s not good for us. Researchers are studying the adverse effects of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and they found that it’s not too late to change. Replace one hour of sitting each day with walking, and you can decrease the chance of early death by 12-14%. The study was done in an effort to find out if replacing sitting with another activity would have immediate effects. The study followed 201,129 Australian participants aged 45 and up. The outcome of the study surprised the researchers. “The results show that inactivity is an even bigger health challenge than we initially thought,” says lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis. But he also brings the good news: “There is definitely scope for people to get off the couch and be more active.”