14 proven side effects of sitting all day
(Source: Angela Cavil, Pontypridd Osteopathic Clinic)
1. Deep vein thrombosis: If you don’t get up and walk around occasionally, you could be putting yourself at risk of potentially deadly blood clots in your legs.
2. Obesity: Surprise, surprise, sitting all day rather than standing or moving around can play a contributing role in obesity, as you are not burning enough calories.
3. Increased Risk of Heart Disease: Those who work out and sit all day are just as likely to develop heart disease, as those who don’t work out and sit all day!
4. Risk of Diabetes: Sitting for prolonged periods of time can increase your chances of developing diabetes by as much as 7 percent. Why? Sitting all day actually causes your body to slow down considerably and can result in increased blood sugar insulin resistance and a much less healthy you.
5. Raised cholesterol: Not only will sitting raise your blood sugar, but your cholesterol as well. Sitting causes enzyme activity in the body to drop by as much as 90% preventing those helpful enzymes from grabbing that fat and using it for energy. In fact, after a few hours of sitting, healthy cholesterol plummets by 20%.
6. Herniated Disc: Sitting puts a lot of pressure on your pelvis and spine, and can lead to some injuries in them over an extended period of time. One such injury may be a herniated disc.
7. Poor posture: Do you always sit correctly when you’re sitting down at work or at home? More than likely you are not, which can put undue pressure on certain parts of your body and lead to poor posture even when you’re not sitting at a desk. Weakened muscles and tight joints caused by prolonged sitting take their toll over time, and can leave you feeling tired, cause extreme lower back and neck pain and harm your body as a whole.
8. Knee pain: When you sit, your knees are generally at a 90 degree angle. At first this doesn’t seem so bad, but after sitting all day, for weeks on end, this can take its toll on your knees.
9. Muscle weakness: It makes sense that moving less results in loss of muscle mass and muscle weakness. One of the hardest hit muscles is the gluteus maximus. It is one of the largest muscles in the body and plays a big role in just about any movement you could want to do, so it’s essential that it stays strong. Weak gluteus muscles can result in lower back pain and hip bursitis.
10. Increased Risk of Depression: Reduced movement means less blood flow. Less blood flow means fewer feel-good hormones are moving through your body, helping you keep depression at bay. The effects can be even worse for those who already struggle with or are more prone to depression.
11. Slowed metabolism: Since you’re not moving around, your circulation slows and you’re burning fewer calories and fewer fat burning enzymes are moving through your body. All of this can lead to an overall slowed metabolism that can affect your energy levels and cause you to gain weight.
12. Neck problems: Many people who work at a computer extend their necks to see or bend them slightly when working. While over short terms this may not be a huge problem, but over long periods of time, it can start to harm the muscles and joints in the neck and lead to pain even when you’re not at work.
13. Back aches and pain: One of the hardest hit parts of the body when you’re sitting all day is the lower back. It is under a large amount of pressure and can begin to ache while at work and for hours afterward.
14. Shorter life span: Those who sit more than six hours a day are at an increased risk of early death from all causes, higher by an average of 35% for women and 18% for men. for those who exercise. Those who don’t exercise and sit all day are at a 94% higher risk of premature death for women, and a 48% higher risk for men. This is no joke for those who spend their day at a desk. Get up, get exercisng and start reducing the effects of being sedentary before it’s too late.
If you are having any problems with joint pains, muscles or movement then why not give Angela a call at Pontypridd Osteopathic Clinic.
As recommended on thebestof Pontypridd and Rhondda - Most Recommended Osteopath in th UK.
