Now that so many people are spending so much time sitting (either because of unconstitutional lockdowns, or working or schooling from home) you should know something important: Sitting for long periods can be fatal. Even how you sit can make a difference. Getting up periodically and moving around can make an even bigger difference.
Most of us spent much more time sitting than we should have even before the coronavirus consequences were imposed. One four-year study of people age 45 or older by the Columbia University Department of Medicine revealed that sedentary behavior (i.e., sitting) accounted for 12.3 hours out of a 16-hour waking day
Whether you sit by choice or because conditions require it, bad things are happening to your body while you’re parked in one place for a length of time. Considerable research has confirmed in a number of studies that sitting for long periods of time contributes to elevated risk of obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, abnormal cholesterol levels, kidney disease and increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.
If you have flown a lot, you probably already know that sitting unmoving in a confined space on long flights raises the risk of developing blood clots called deep vein thrombosis (DVT). This is especially true if you have additional risk factors like a family history of blood clots, obesity, pregnancy, cancer, use of estrogen-containing birth control or hormone replacement therapy, as well as recent injury or surgery.
The Columbia University study found that people who sit for more than 13 hours a day have double the risk of death from any cause compared to those who sit less than 11 hours in a day. By contrast, those who frequently sit in stretches for less than 30 minutes had a 55 percent lower risk of such a death compared to those who routinely sit more than 30 minutes at a time.
Another study compared the health risks for adults who spent less than two hours a day watching TV or other screen-based entertainment (e.g., streaming movies or video games) versus those who spent more than four hours a day of recreational screen time. The people who spent the most screen time had a nearly 50 percent higher risk of death from any cause and about 125 percent increased risk of cardiovascular episodes — chest pains (angina) or heart attacks. The increased risk was separate from other traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as smoking or high blood pressure.
American Institute for Cancer Research studies confirmed a link between inactivity and the risk of breast cancer and colon cancer. Other studies also found links to lung cancer and uterine cancer.
Research by the Harvard School of Public Health found a clear correlation between viewing TV more than two hours a day and the increased risk of cardiovascular disease as well as type 2 diabetes. I would think the increased risk results from snacking while sitting — considering the intense pressure advertisers put on viewers to snack while watching TV, and the snacks are usually disease-inducing processed foods.
But don’t think that because you exercise regularly that you’d be in no danger. Mayo Clinic co-director Dr. James A. Levine writes that “spending a few hours a week at the gym or otherwise engaged in moderate or vigorous activity doesn’t seem to significantly offset the risk.” It’s the unbroken periods of inactivity that do that damage.
Scientist Katy Bowman, author of the book: Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement, told Reuters: “Actively sedentary is a new category of people who are fit for one hour but sitting around the rest of the day…You can’t offset 10 hours of stillness with one hour of exercise.”
These are some of the dangers of The Long Sit:
- Organ damage: heart disease, overproductive pancreas, colon cancer
- Muscle degeneration: mushy abs, tight inflexible hips, limp glutes
- Leg disorders: poor circulation in the legs, varicose veins, soft bones
- Sluggish digestion: cramping, bloating, heartburn and constipation, as well as dysbiosis in your gastrointestinal tract, a condition caused by microbial imbalances in your body
- Foggy brain: less blood flow and oxygen to the brain, slower function
- Structural problems: strained neck, sore shoulders and back, inflexible spine, disk damage
The solution to these problems is obviously to “sit less, move more” as the American Heart Association urges. Even a little movement is better than nothing, and more is better.
Here are some tips on how to minimize the risks of sitting:
1. Move every half-hour — Dr. Keith Diaz at Columbia University Department of Medicine advises that “if you have a job or lifestyle where you have to sit for prolonged periods, the best suggestion I can make is to take a movement break every half-hour. Our findings suggest this one behavior change could reduce your risk of death.”
2. Get up and walk during TV commercials — Walk for the entire break, do some kind of stretching or calisthenics; commercial breaks normally come every 10-12 minutes or so and usually last two to three minutes.
3. Alternate sitting and standing — Whether you’re at work or home, you can read reports or the newspaper standing as easily as you can sitting. You can walk around while talking on the phone… you get the idea.
4. Stretch and exercise your calf muscles while sitting — Press down on the floor with the balls of your feet and lift your heels as high as you can. Then, do the reverse and dorsiflex your feet to raise them up. Also excellent for the circulation.
Fortunately, it doesn’t take that much effort to offset the negative effects of sitting for long periods, and the benefits are immense. Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Levine explains: “The impact of movement — even leisurely movement — can be profound… the muscle activity needed for standing and other movement seems to trigger important processes related to the breakdown of fats and sugars within the body. When you sit, these processes stall — and your health risks increase. When you’re standing or actively moving, you kick the processes back into action.”
Written by Bob Livingston
