Sitting All Day On The Job…Not Good For The Health
Sitting all day on the job can be a pain – literally.
We all know that being constantly seated isn’t good – or healthy. Doing so has, in fact, generated some ugly labels... couch potato, sofa spud and probably much worse.
If you think you’ve dodged the unhealthy bullet because you exercise before or after work, think again. The culprit is not the lack of exercise alone. It’s sitting. Moreover, new studies show that the more hours a day you sit, the greater your likelihood of dying at an earlier age no matter how much you exercise or how slender you are.
Cancer research indicates that men and women who sit for more than six hours a day are far more predisposed to:
• Obesity
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Muscle stiffness
• Poor balance and mobility
• Lower-back, neck and hip pain
As a matter of fact chronic sitters are up to 40 percent more likely to die earlier than people who sit fewer than three hours a day.
The American Cancer Society study observed more than 100,000 men and women determining vast mortality rate increases for those who sat more than six hours a day. And for men and women who sat for that amount of time and didn’t exercise at all, the rates nearly doubled!
How could this age-old sign of cordiality (“Have a seat,” “Please be seated”…) be so wrong? The answer is relatively simple. Sitting shuts down leg muscles, vastly slows the burning of calories and does little to break down fat. More bad news – a hidden culprit. There’s a gene in the body that causes heart disease, but doesn’t respond to exercise. Worse yet, the activity of the gene becomes worse from sitting. Plus, sitting with little or no support is extremely harmful for the spine – worse than lying down and worse than standing. So what are the millions of Americans who work behind a desk all day to do? Good news – the fixes are easy: • Take a short walking around your building or simply around your office. • Get a standing work station. • Wear a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps a day. • Park farther away from your office building. • Use the stairs instead of the elevator. • And the simplest solution of all – Just stand up. • Ask your supervisor or manager about instituting a wellness plan |