Keith M Diaz
Researcher
5
MENTIONS
3
EPISODES
3
PODCASTS
Search complete. 5 mentions across 3 episodes found for "Keith M Diaz".
Sep 4, 2026
Bryan WalshHOST
Hmm.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
So I was kind of wondering, uh, about this question when I came across research from a guy, uh, c- at Columbia University Medical Center, a physiologist named Keith Diaz.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
So Keith's, you know, this is his jam.
Bryan WalshHOST
Hmm.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
Like, we can't all have it.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
Like, why can't we focus? Why can't we pay attention? Why do we feel like so foggy? So I was thinking about that when I heard on the radio about a physiologist at Columbia University Medical Center, a guy named Keith Diaz, who had been trying to figure out This is so sad.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
The minimum amount of movement that the human body needed in order to not die a premature death due to sedentary habits.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
So he'd kind of found the answer, which was that they needed to move their body five minutes for every half hour of those long periods of sitting.
23 MINS LATER
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
What is so great about doing these episodes is that I got to have conversations with all of the speakers and really delve into some of the things that we could just not fit into their talks.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
And also we have the benefit of 2020 hindsight in that we know the questions that came up after their talks and address some of them.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
So we're going to start with the body with my research partner, Keith Diaz, from Columbia University Medical Center, so that you can understand exactly what is happening in your body when you spend a lot of your time staring and looking at a screen.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
I really appreciate the way he's able to take very complex biological functions and break them down.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
If you love going to spin class in the morning or that 6:00 AM CrossFit, your daily workout is not enough if you sit for the rest of the day.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
So Keith Diaz is a Columbia University physiologist, and his work, his research is at the heart of my book, and as he told me, even a solid hour at the gym is just 4% of your day, and the other 96%, yes, sleeping, but also the meetings, uh, watching Netflix, Zoom from Zoom to Zoom, that all adds up.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
So if you spend most of your day parked in a chair, that morning workout or the long jog a- in the evening, it doesn't undo the damage.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
And there's actually a term for this in the research world, the active couch potato.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
It was a chilly morning in 2023.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
I was out with my dog, and I was listening to the headlines, and I heard my NPR colleague, Allison Aubrey, reporting on a study that, yes, ironically stopped me in my tracks.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
So this brings us back to Keith Diaz at Columbia, that physiologist.
Manoush ZomorodiGUEST
He had found in the lab that a five-minute walk every half hour at two miles per hour, basically a stroll, could be an antidote to all the sitting that we typically do.