Prolonged sitting is bad for your health. That's a fact.

Now, doctors say prolonged sitting plus what they call "sedentary behavior" isn't just bad for your health. It's downright deadly.

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine confirms sedentary behavior increases a person's chances of getting a disease or a condition that will kill him prematurely, even if that person exercises.

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It said sedentary behavior can lead to death from cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and can also cause chronic health problems such as Type 2 diabetes. It increases a person's risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 90 percent.

Sedentary behavior is basically sitting down too much, a habit endemic among office and factory workers. This physical inactivity has been identified as the fourth-leading risk factor for death for people all around the world, said the World Health Organization.

Prolonged sitting is defined as sitting for eight to 12 hours or more a day. Researchers estimate more than half the average American's waking hours are spent sitting down.

What's worse, prolonged sitting negates the effect of exercise.

Researchers from Toronto found that prolonged sitting outweighs the benefit a person gets from exercise. The study found the risk of poor health "is more pronounced at lower levels of physical activity than at higher levels."

The good news, however, is the more a person exercises, the lower the impact of sedentary behavior on his health.

Persons who engage in regular physical activity but still spend a large part of their day in sedentary activity were found to be 30 percent less likely, on average, to die from any cause in a given period compared to those with little to no exercise.

To avoid sedentary behavior, the study suggests that a person must be aware of how much time he spends sitting down. This way, he can make a goal of reducing that amount of time bit by bit every week.

If a person has to sit down to do work, he can use a standing desk (also called a stand up desk) instead of his regular desk. Standing up or walking around from one to three minutes once every half an hour is also god for one's health.