Physical inactivity dominates our lives: we spend between nine and ten hours a day sitting. Sedentary lifestyle is already compared to smoking, since it affects health in multiple ways. Do you know them?
The movement has been present in all our daily work and challenges necessary for survival since our origins, but the ways of life of the technological and affluent society have immersed us in sedentary habits that can be our grave.
WE DON’T MOVE ENOUGH
If we review the life of any person in our society, we see that, after leaving the hospital where the mother has given birth, the child is transferred in a child seat or in the car, takes his first steps with walker and eats sitting in a high chair. And when he is old enough to go to school, he is forced to spend long hours glued to a chair and a table to carry out school activities.
This way of life will continue as an adult in the workplace, especially if you work in an office, spend long hours in front of a computer and your leisure consists of putting yourself in front of a screen.
If we take into account that we usually travel by car or public transport to the workplace, that with a call they can serve us food at home or that we can make purchases online without having to move from the chair, our possibilities of movement are becoming smaller.
During childhood and adolescence, in addition, the excess of schoolwork typical of current educational systems reduces the time for sport or movement generated by the game that previous generations did.
Children’s bodies and minds are tied to the seat. That’s not counting the time they spend, and we spend, sitting looking at the mobile.
6 HEALTH PROBLEMS CAUSED BY SITTING ALL DAY
To remain seated is to do it for many hours, day after day and in the same position, it is a habit that makes us sick in different ways. Let’s see how.
1. PROMOTES BACK PAIN
Sitting at the work table with your back curved and shoulders drooping, as we commonly do, puts uneven pressure on the spine.
Over time, this pose wears down the vertebral discs, overloads some ligaments and joints, and presses on the muscles, which stretch to accommodate the curved position of the back.
Poor movement of the abdominal muscles and keeping the back muscles tight causes hyperlordosis, an exaggeration of the vertebral arch.
Sitting for hours presses on and squeezes the muscles, nerves, arteries, and veins that make up the soft tissue layers of the buttocks and legs, leaving them flabby, which can damage our stability and ability to walk steadily.
In more compressed areas, nerves, arteries, and veins can become blocked, limiting nerve signals, and reducing blood flow. This can cause numbness in the extremities, swelling, varicose veins and even deep vein thrombosis.
2. AFFECTS FLEXIBILITY
The stiffness of the muscles and joints makes us lose flexibility and reduces movements. On the other hand, our bones, while we keep moving, widen and strengthen to facilitate activity, but when we are inactive for hours they weaken. Problems such as osteoporosis may then appear.
3. PROMOTES WEIGHT GAIN
Sitting for long periods of time has another effect linked to obesity and its derived diseases: it deactivates lipoprotein lipase, a special enzyme in the walls of blood capillaries that breaks down fats in the blood.
When we sit, we do not burn fat or calories as well as when we move, which means that we gain weight. We may even have our cholesterol levels skyrocket or diabetes may occur.
4. INCREASES THE LIKELIHOOD OF SOME CANCERS
Sitting for long hours slows down the digestive process and lengthens exposure to possible carcinogens in the digestive tract. This gives rise to colon cancer to a greater extent, for example, as different studies have shown.
In addition, the higher concentration of hormones such as insulin and estrogen, as well as certain growth factors, affect, among other things, an increased risk of endometrial cancer in women.
On the other hand, not doing physical activity increases inflammation.
5. INCREASES THE RISK OF DEPRESSION
At the brain level, although it is currently understood that intellectual work or concentration is gained in a calm position and sitting at a table, in reality sitting long hours reduces blood flow and the amount of oxygen that enters the bloodstream from the lungs, especially if instead of sitting with the spine straight we do it hunched over.
Moving stimulates the pumping of blood and oxygen through the brain, which releases endorphins, chemicals that influence mood and concentration.
By spending a lot of time sitting, brain function declines and concentration and mood also decline. Depression comes more easily.
6. REDUCE HEALTHY LIFE YEARS
Today we only spend a third of our time on our feet, which has sounded the alarm to the World Health Organization (WHO). It has already identified physical inactivity as the fourth leading cause of death on the planet, even ahead of obesity, and experts do not stop talking about the harms of lack of movement in books, television programs or conferences, supported by medical studies published in prestigious scientific journals.
Everyone compares a sedentary lifestyle to a time bomb capable of causing, apart from obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancers such as colon and endometrial, muscle and back problems, deep vein thrombosis, fragile bones, depression and dementia.
A problem similar to that of tobacco in the eighties, when everyone knew that it was harmful to health but did not realize the extent that its effects really had.
HOW MUCH EXERCISE TO DO PER DAY
According to the WHO, an adult should get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week or 30 minutes in at least 5 days. A recent study in The Lancet found that the health impact of an eight-hour workday in front of a computer or car can be alleviated by activities such as cycling, at speeds of more than 16 km/hour, or brisk walking at 5.6 km/hour for more than 60 minutes each day.