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Ancient wisdom

Summary:

Ramazzini was right when he said clerical workers needed to do some physical exercise to counteract the negative health effects of their sedentary lives.

SOME 300 years ago the ‘father of occupational medicine’ Bernardino Ramazzini advised that workers such as clerks, should ‘take physical exercise’ to ‘counteract the harm done by many days of sedentary life.’1We now know that sedentary lifestyles are associated with increased risks of chronic illness, including type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer2,3. Office workers ought to be worried, sitting as they do for an average 10.6 hours a day4.

Dr John Ballard is editor of Occupational Health [atWork]

Author: Ballard J

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Occupational Health at Work /January (vol. 00/) pp03

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