A Long Drive to Work Impacts Your Health!

Average commute times in Tyler are between 17 and 30 minutes, according to zipatlas.com.  Those who live right in the center of Tyler have shorter commute times, and those who live further out, especially to the east, tend to sit in the car longer as they make the drive to work.

It turns out, longer commutes can have a serious health impact over time.  This may make you want to move further in.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis studied over four thousand drivers in two Texas cities - Dallas and Austin - to see how long commutes impact health.

They discovered that people who live just ten miles or more from work, are prone to higher blood pressure than those who live closer to work.  The extra time in the car must give you a chance to get ticked off at all the bad drivers and that makes your blood literally boil.

Commuters with trips of 15 miles or more each way are also at a greater risk of becoming obese, because all that time in the car just doesn't leave room for much exercise.  Unless of course, you do some ab tightening exercises while you're sitting there.  Perhaps the fist clenching and tensing up when somebody cuts you off does burn a few calories.

Overall, things could be worse in Tyler.  If you're in zip code 75701, you average a 17.5 minute drive to work, and that's a national rank of #28,817.  There are over twenty eight thousand zip codes that have it worse.  Umm....one of those is 75705, with an average commute time of 30.9 minutes, good for #7,349 in the US.  If you live in that zip code, take the stairs when you get to work!  And do those ab exercises in the car.

Oh, and tell the boss it's in everyone's best interest that you take those long breaks at work.