Smarter driver: The health downsides to commuting and what you can do about it

It's little surprise that lounging on a couch all day watching episodes of Revenge is bad for your health -- according to recent studies, sitting for more than four hours a day leads to all kinds of maladies, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer. But that also means your daily commute can be as bad for your health as sitting in front of a computer all day--and as the average time spent commuting has increased, so the risks have increased. Nor does extra exercise necessarily offset the detrimental effects; researchers have found that there was no difference in heart disease risk between those who didn't work out much, and those that exercised for more than two hours of exercise a day if they were sitting for an extended of time.

To help keep your blood pressure, body mass and waist size in check, CNET's Brian Cooley shares some tips on how to stay healthy while commuting to work.

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