Sitting our life away, it seems, may be very bad for our health and even our life expectancy, reports WebMD.

Researchers reported that sitting for long hours is linked to:

Worse mental health

A higher risk of death from heart disease and other causes

A higher risk of being disabled

WebMD asked three experts to weigh in on how we can reduce our sitting time.

What health problems have too much sitting been linked to?

''It has been linked to cardiovascular events like heart attack, heart disease death, overall death, and death from cancer," says Andrea LaCroix, PhD, director of the Women's Health Center of Excellence at the University of California, San Diego.

Sitting time has also been linked with high blood pressure, obesity, bad cholesterol, and too much belly fat.

How does sitting affect appetite?

You might think that sitting would make you less hungry, says Barry Braun, PhD, director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Braun's research has found it is not true.

His team assigned people to sit a lot one day and to stand a lot on another day. Each time, the researchers studied how it affected their appetite. ''Going from active to sitting doesn't lower your appetite or your energy intake," he says. Prolonged sitting, he says, may trigger us to eat more than we should, leading to weight gain.

Although experts aren’t sure how often you need to get up, they suggest getting up about every 30 minutes if possible.

How can the average person reduce sitting time?

Jacqueline Kerr, PhD, associate professor of family and preventive medicine at UC San Diego suggests:

Give yourself reminders to sit less. At home, consider a TV commercial your signal to get out of your chair briefly. At work, use a smaller coffee cup or glass so your trips for refills will be more frequent.