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New co-director of obesity initiative already well-known for inactivity studies


January 15, 2013

James Vlahos, New York Times Magazine writer, writes in an article titled "Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?" about the research being done by one of ASU's newest tenured professors. 

James A. Levine, a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic and a world-renowned leader in obesity research and child advocacy, has recently been named co-director of the Mayo Clinic/Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative. 

In his time spent with Levine, Vlahos had a chance to check out the research being done into the harms of a sedentary lifestyle. As he explains in the article, "whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin," sitting for nine hours a day is bad for your health. 

"[Levine's] is a war against inertia itself," writes Vlahos, "which he believes sickens more than just our body."

Levine's passion for his work comes through in the article, where he is quoted as saying, “go into cubeland in a tightly controlled corporate environment and you immediately sense that there is a malaise about being tied behind a computer screen seated all day. The soul of the nation is sapped, and now it’s time for the soul of the nation to rise.”

Article source: The New York Times Magazine

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