The Three Biggest Ways All That Sitting is Destroying Your Health
Another week, another week of sitting, amiright?? Have you ever thought about what all this sitting is doing to your health?
It’s a lot more damaging than you might think.
The average Canadian office worker sits for about 11 hours each day.
How is that possible, you ask?
You wake up and do your morning routine, then you sit in the car or on transit to get to work. Straight up to the office to get started with a nice four-hour session of sitting. Over lunch, you go to the food court and…sit. Repeat the morning in the afternoon and then repeat the commute after work. When you finally get home, dinner smells great and is already at the dining table. After cleaning up, you need to blow off a little stress from the day by…sitting and watching the game (or reading).
When you’re standing, the weight of everything above your waist is distributed among three support points: two legs and the lowest joint in your spine.
But when you sit ALL of that weight (from the waist up accounts for about 2/3 of your body weight) is focused on one joint.
So, three ways all of this sitting is destroying your health:
1. By causing spinal degeneration and arthritis.
Prolonged sitting means prolonged NOT moving your body and, in particular, spinal joints.
Joints are MADE to move. In fact, movement of joints is a “use it or lose it” type of thing.
If you immobilize a joint (say, if you broke your arm and had to have a cast past your elbow) leads to degenerative changes the longer that joint stays immobile.
Now, thankfully, you’re not in a body cast at your work desk but all that sitting and not moving your body leads to, and/or accelerates spinal degenerative changes.
The antidote: set a timer, get up and lightly move your torso in rotation, bending to the sides, front, and back, and if possible, take a little walk.
2. By promoting pooling of blood and lymph in the lower extremities.
Blood and lymph return to your heart from the lower part of your body through the flexing of leg muscles.
When you sit, very little of that flexing occurs which leads to venous stagnation or pooling of the blood in the lower extremities. If you’ve ever had that HEAVY feeling in your legs after a long flight or road trip, then you know what I mean.
3. By decreasing the nutrition and stimulation of the brain.
It is thought that movement of the spine is essential for cerebrospinal fluid to move around the spinal cord as well.
A sedentary life has been associated with increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and with chronically stimulated sympathetic nervous system (which is the “stress” side of your nervous system).
Suffice it to say, being consistently active, particularly if you sit as much as I’ve outlined in this article, is essential for your health.
So, what can you do if your job involves a great deal of sitting?
1. Request a sit-stand desk. (not every company can do this, though – see #2)
2. Set a timer on your phone and stand up for 30 seconds every 20-60 minutes. I know it disrupts your work flow but you’ll be more productive.
3. Stay active. Particularly DURING the workday. Take the stairs if it’s practical. Walk the halls of the company if you can do a “walking meeting” with a colleague. And lunch time is a great time to do a walk and hit the reset button.
We should work to live, not live to work. Your job shouldn’t be killing you. But it is. The good news is there’s lots you can do to turn the tables.
Thank you for being part of our mission. As always. With love,
Dr. Colin