Sitting Disease

Did you know that sitting down all day can kill you? As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, a new study highlights the dangers we face from sitting down all day. The study, which came from the Median Journal, shows, among other things, that those who spend the majority of their day sitting down are an alarming 54% more likely to die from a heart attack.

The average person spends about 9.3 hours a day sitting down. That is more than we spend sleeping, which is about 7.7 hours. Part of the increase is due to computers, TV and the fact that most of us work sitting behind a desk all day.

So why is sitting all day so dangerous? Sitting down all day can make us fat. In average, obese people sit for about 2.5 more hours per day than their thin counterparts. One out of 3 Americans today is considered obese.

Here are some more alarming and disturbing statistics to deal with. I hope you are sitting down for this.

Sitting down increases the risk of death by about 40%. This means if you spend 6 or more hours a day sitting, it can actually make you more 40% likely to die within the next fifteen years.

Sitting wrecks your body:

•  The moment you sit, your caloric burning drops to about 1% per minute.

•  The moment you sit, all electrical activities shut off in your leg muscles.

• The moment you sit, enzymes, which help break down body fat, drop an astounding 90%.

•  Sitting after two hours causes a drop of about 20% of your good cholesterol.  

•  Sitting for 24 hours causes the risk of diabetes to rise since your insulin effectiveness drops about 25%.  

Try to interrupt your sitting down time as much as possible during the day.

•  You may want to do some stretching, walking or even some jumping jacks.

•   Try to take the stairs whenever you can as opposed to riding the elevator.

•    If you sit at a 135 degree angle, you will put less strain on your back than if you're sitting straight or hunched forward.

•  Walking around actually burns about 3 to 5 times the amount of calories that sitting does. This means you should take every opportunity you can to walk around the office or at home if you are sitting down for long periods of time.

For most of us it is impossible not to sit about 8 hours a day at work. So what can you do to survive sitting down all day? 

What about at home? Most of us want to put our feet up after a day’s work-not that it always happens, but it sounds good. We forget we’ve been sitting down more of our day than standing or walking.  Most of us watch our share of TV, plus the neighbor’s.  Keep in mind that those who sit about 3 hours or more each day watching TV, we are 64% more likely to die from heart disease.  For each hour you spend watching TV, it equals to about an 11% higher risk of death.

If you go back to about a hundred years, when most of us worked in fields, factories and spent less time sitting down, obesity was almost non-existent.  Life required a more active lifestyle, but it kept people healthier, leaner and stronger.  These days, we can push a button to take care of many of the things we had to get up and walk to do-like change the channel.  The advancement of technology has left many of us sitting in a chair, staring down at a cell phone, instead of throwing a Frisbie in the back yard, or taking a walk.   Think of ways you can add physical activity back into your lifestyle.  For instance, manual lawn mowers aren’t that expensive, and are definitely eco-friendly.  Using one to cut your grass would require regular exercise…well, in a normal summer with some precipitation it would anyway.

So now that you know that sitting down all day can kill you, what are your ideas about ways to fit more activity in to your day?

Originally published - Show Me Health - Sitting Disease - September 2012

Source: Dr. Mike Evans, Mayo Clinic, USA Today, JustStand.org