The Dangers of Sitting Too Much and How to Combat Them

Categories: HEALTH

The Dangers of Sitting Too Much and How to Combat Them

Physical inactivity contributes to over three million preventable deaths worldwide each year; that's six per cent of all deaths. It is the fourth leading cause of death due to non-communicable diseases.

Research has linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns. They include obesity and a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and unhealthy cholesterol levels — that make up metabolic syndrome. Too much sitting overall and prolonged periods of sitting also seem to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Anxiety and depression: The relationship between sitting too much and poor mental health can largely be attributed to the thing you’re not doing when you spend all that time seated, which is taking part in physical activity. Prolonged periods of sedentary behavior, defined as any activity in a seated or reclined posture, can seriously damage the back and spine and increase blood pressure. Symptoms of anxiety and depression have long been linked to sedentary lifestyles.

A recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry tracked the moods and behaviors of 2,327 participants across all 50 states over eight weeks to measure the consequences of suddenly becoming more sedentary and found that sitting for significant amounts of time and more often was associated with higher symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Stiff neck and shoulders:  When sitting at your desk, place your feet flat on the floor and keep your back flush against the chair. Your head should be in a neutral position with the ears directly above your shoulders.

Neck and shoulder pain is often due to an injury of the soft tissue. Soft tissue includes your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. The term is used to distinguish it from the hard tissue of bones and cartilage.

Soft tissue injuries can cause many kinds of pain, including:

i. stiffness

ii. headache

iii. muscle spasms

Varicose veins: Varicose veins develop for many reasons. A sedentary lifestyle, which includes sitting for long periods, is one of the top causes of vein disease. Your leg veins pump blood back to the heart. Tiny one-way valves in the veins open and close to push blood upward, but these valves can weaken from aging, obesity, or pregnancy.

The same thing can happen if you stand for long periods or on your feet all day. The veins already fight gravity to send blood back to the heart when sitting down. It is only worse when the person is standing.

So, what does that have to do with sitting too much? The valves in your leg veins fight against gravity when pumping blood back to the heart. Sitting for long periods adds extra pressure on the already-stressed valves since inactivity slows circulation.

While you can’t prevent varicose veins completely due to its inherited nature, there are things you can do to minimize the likelihood that they will develop.

i. Avoid sitting for long periods without getting up and walking around

ii. Get plenty of exercise and eat a healthy diet

iii. Drink plenty of water

iv. Put your feet up at the end of the day for at least 10 to 15 minutes

Deep vein thrombosis: In addition to sitting for long periods, factors that can increase the risk for pulmonary embolisms include:

i. Being overweight or obese

ii. Smoking

iii. Pregnancy and the first six weeks after giving birth

iv. Being bedridden or unable to move much

v. Breaking a bone, injuring a muscle or sustaining an injury vi. that could impact the arteries

vii. Having certain conditions, such as a stroke, chronic heart disease or high blood pressure

To help prevent blood clots, consider the following tips:

i. Stay Hydrated to Reduce the Risk of Blood Thickening

ii. If You’re Pregnant, Keep Moving to Improve Blood Flow

iii. Keep Up With Meds When on Vacation

iv. Avoid Sitting for Long Periods of Time While Traveling

v. Consider Compression Stockings to Encourage Circulation.

Cancer: Too much sitting can raise your risk for cancer. The studies had all periodically queried the participants on how much time they spent sitting – TV-related sitting, occupational sitting, and total sitting time. Over the years, there were almost 69,000 cancer cases.

The more a person sat, the higher the cancer risk for two types of cancer: Endometrial and colon. Sedentariness was linked to a 24% increased risk of colon cancer and a 32% higher risk of developing endometrial cancer. For every two-hour increase in overall sitting time, the risk of cancer rose 8% for colon cancer and 10% for endometrial cancer (it rose 6% for lung cancer,

How can we reduce the negative effects of sitting

One of the biggest complaints from people who sit at desks a lot is upper body tension. A lot of people (including myself!) hold tension in the upper body, neck and shoulders when they spend a lot of time typing or hunched over a computer screen or phone.

Try these tips from the pros to counteract the long hours you spend sitting, either at a desk, on your couch or in bed.

1. Keep yourself hydrated:

Your body depends on water to survive. Every cell, tissue, and organ in your body needs water to work properly. For example, your body uses water to maintain its temperature, remove waste, and lubricate your joints. Water is needed for overall good health. Staying hydrated is great for your health and refilling your water bottle forces you to get up and move.

2. Walk every hour:

A new study has revealed that walking an extra two minutes each hour may offset hazards of sitting too long. Adding two minutes of walking each hour in combination with normal activities, which should include 2.5 hours of moderate exercise each week. Moderate exercise strengthens the heart, muscles, and bones and confers health benefits that low and light activities can't.

3. Walk during meetings:

Walking is an incredibly underrated form of exercise. Walking can improve your heart health, circulation, endurance, and overall fitness, as well as reduce symptoms of depression, pain, and your risk of various diseases. It’s also low-impact, so it’s light on your joints, and it can improve your posture because you’re not slumped over at a desk for hours on end.

4. Take movement breaks:

An active lifestyle starts with movement breaks. Movement breaks are short periods of time spent moving throughout your day—typically every 1-2 hours. Movement breaks can include stretching, walking, or light exercises that counteract the effects of prolonged sitting or sedentary tasks like desk work.

Movement breaks don’t need to be daunting and time-consuming workouts.

When it comes to movement breaks, every movement counts. Start with small activities every hour and work your way up as you start to form your healthy habit.

Even the smallest movements can have positive effects on your day-to-day health.

5. Be active outside of your workday:

Spending time outside offers many health benefits, and a recent study detailed just how long people should stay outside to gain those advantages (a minimum of 120 minutes per week). However, planning regular time outside isn’t always easy, as work and personal commitments make it difficult to find time. While a big part of having a balanced and meaningful life is making time for your passions and non-work activities, having a job—and getting ready for it, and recovering from it—can eat up all of your time and energy if you let it.

6. Adjust your office chair and environment:

Another overlooked (and usually adjustable) aspect of our chairs is the height. If your chair is too high or too low, it will throw off your body's alignment. If your chair is too high, you can consider putting a box under your feet to prop them up, and if your chair is too low and can't be adjusted, it may be time to search for another.

Wood chairs, metal chairs, small chairs, tall chairs—whatever you have at your disposal, there are ways to adjust it to fit your alignment needs, which, in turn, will make the hours you spend sitting less debilitating. Or if you're super dedicated, grab a standing desk and stand with good posture, of course.

7. Set timers to stand and move:

As far as immediate outcomes go, your body might ache. Sitting without moving for hours at a time can lead to tight hamstring and hip flexor muscles, potentially contributing to pain in other parts of the body.

Yes, it’s easy to start on a project and then look up only to realize a few hours have flown by. During that time, you were probably sitting hunched over your laptop or workspace. Download some apps that remind you to get up and shake it out every so often. Plus, plenty of the mini-exercises are fun and enjoyable.

So, consider setting a timer on your computer, phone, or watch to remind yourself to get up and move!

By taking these steps, you can reduce the negative effects of sitting too much and improve your overall health and well-being.